ERA13LA264 · Globe GC-1B
Globe GC-1B · Accident: loss of lift during initial climb
From Oakhill Airpark (SC82) to Triple Tree Airport (SC00)
Event
- NTSB case
- ERA13LA264
- Event typeAccident: someone killed or seriously injured, or the aircraft substantially damaged (NTSB definition). Incident: an occurrence that affected or could have affected safety, short of that. Glossary
- Accident
- InvestigationHow far the investigation had got when the record was published: preliminary, ongoing, final or completed. Unknown where the source does not say. Glossary
- Completed
- API-reported fatalities
- 0 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- Unknown
- OperationWhat kind of flying it was, grouped by the rules it flew under: airline (US Part 121), air taxi and commuter (Part 135), general aviation (Part 91 and similar), military or government. Glossary
- General aviation
- WeatherVisual meteorological conditions (VMC): good enough to fly by looking outside. Instrument conditions (IMC): cloud or low visibility, flying by instruments. Glossary
- Visual Meteorological Cond
Globe GC-1B
- Aircraft type
- Globe GC-1
- Category
- Airplane
- RegistrationThe aircraft's tail number, such as N12345 or G-ABCD. Registrations are reissued, so the same one years apart can be a different aircraft. Glossary
- N3715K
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Oakhill Airpark (SC82), Williamson, SCTo Triple Tree Airport (SC00), Woodruff, SC
- Aircraft age
- About 67 years (built 1946)
- Flight rulesThe regulations the flight operated under: in the US, Part 91 (general aviation), Part 121 (airlines), Part 135 (air taxi and commuter) and others; for flights abroad, the NTSB's coarser commercial or non-commercial code. Glossary
- Part 91: General Aviation
- Phase of flightThe stage of the flight when things started to go wrong: standing, taxi, takeoff, initial climb, en route, maneuvering, approach or landing. Glossary
- Initial climb
- Defining eventThe single coded event the NTSB judges best describes what happened (records from 2008 on). Older records name the first occurrence in the sequence instead. Glossary
- Loss of lift
- Also codedOther events the NTSB coded in the sequence, such as a wire strike after a loss of power. Flight Findings uses them for its kinds of event. Glossary
- Tree(s)
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Substantial
Cause areas
- Aircraft › Aircraft oper/perf/capability
- Environmental issues › Conditions/weather/phenomena
- Personnel issues › Action/decision
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot performed a preflight inspection and engine run up with no anomalies noted. He noted the wind favored runway 10. He then taxied to the 2,400-ft turf runway, which had 50-ft tall trees located 1,000 ft from the departure end, and began the takeoff. When the airplane reached climb speed, the pilot lifted the airplane off the runway. He then realized that the airplane was not going to be able to climb above the trees located near the end of the runway. Therefore, the pilot decided to perform a precautionary landing in a nearby field. During the landing roll, the airplane struck a tree and incurred substantial damage. The pilot and pilot-rated passenger, who were both airframe and powerplant mechanics, reported no preimpact mechanical malfunctions with the airplane that would have precluded normal operation.
The wind reported at an airport 10 miles north of the accident location and at other surrounding airports was such that the airplane would have experienced a 5- to 8-knot right-quartering tailwind on runway 10 around the time of the accident. Density altitude was 2,307 feet above mean sea level.
It is therefore likely, that the airplane experienced a reduction in performance during takeoff due to the tailwind, density altitude, and the weight (within about 120 lbs of the maximum gross weight) at which the airplane was being operated.
Probable cause
The pilot’s decision to takeoff with a quartering tailwind at high density altitude, close to gross takeoff weight, on a short turf runway with trees at the departure end.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ERA13LA264
- Event ID
- 20130601X53019
- Case number
- ERA13LA264
- Dataset
- full-current
- Source SHA-256
- 5cf380f0061817c0331a6b2d8cc7e0ee3a79bea469a1001dc5c10e56f35f5ab3
Source notes (4)
- Unreviewed is an editorial label, not an investigation status. API-sourced is not report-checked or human-reviewed. Explicit event totals are used without summing aircraft injury tables; onboard allocation is withheld. Unknown values remain unknown. The operation category is mapped from the NTSB-reported FAR part and has not been reviewed.
- Filled from the NTSB case API where the bulk record had no value: investigation status, coordinates. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date, which is the same as the UTC date the NTSB stores.
- API snapshot SHA-256: b4aafab726482ca9f7eb42edd3134e06b2cda267376d5ea781d221a668257702; retrieved 2026-09-15T21:45:03.540Z.