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WPR13CA325 · Boeing E75

14 Jul 2013 · Bozeman, MT, United States

Boeing E75 · Accident: loss of lift during initial climb

From BZM · Bozeman, MT to BZM · Bozeman, MT

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Narrative check · The NTSB narrative appears to contradict this record's departure or destination. Values are shown as recorded, not corrected; compare with the narrative.

Event

NTSB case
WPR13CA325
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

Boeing E75

Aircraft type
Boeing E75
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
N5176N
Operator
Unknown
Onboard fatalities
Unknown
Route Narrative disagrees
From BZM · Bozeman, MTTo BZM · Bozeman, MT
Aircraft age
Not recorded
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
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
  • Personnel issues › Task performance

Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.

NTSB narrative

The pilot reported that he and the pilot-rated passenger, departed from the turf runway in calm wind conditions. During the initial climb, the airplane’s climb rate was not as expected and he attributed this degraded climb performance to likely being the result of the addition of the passenger’s weight. Upon reaching 200 feet above ground level (agl), the pilot began a 180-degree turn to the north in an effort to gain altitude while avoiding maneuvering over obstacles and a more densely populated area.

As the airplane entered the bank, the pilot felt a degradation in performance despite indications that both the engine power and airspeed were adequate. The airplane was not maintaining altitude and in an effort to avoid colliding into a subdivision, the pilot increased the bank angle. The airplane subsequently collided into terrain and came to rest in a ditch adjacent to the airport’s perimeter fence. During the accident sequence the airplane sustained damage to the wings and empennage.

The pilot further stated that he believed the airplane’s descent during the turn was a result of either of the following: a downdraft, too high angle-of-attack attitude, or possible decrease in engine power output. He reported no mechanical malfunctions or failures with the airplane that would have precluded normal operation. The passenger opined that the accident was a result of the airspeed being too slow for the steep bank angle.

Probable cause

The pilot’s failure to maintain adequate airspeed during a turn, which resulted in a loss of lift and collision with terrain.

Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset

Sources

NTSB record WPR13CA325
Event ID
20130714X24503
Case number
WPR13CA325
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. 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: 3fbf0bfed2d7d1d43a5f1dd305e5d9431d8a8add6cf5f39e6b7f09e5d707be71; retrieved 2026-09-15T22:12:05.499Z.