ERA13LA360 · Quest Aircraft Company LLC KODIAK 100
Paxton Aviation Quest Aircraft Company LLC KODIAK 100 · Accident during takeoff
From Friends Ultralightport (MA07) to Orange Municipal Airport (ORE)
Event
- NTSB case
- ERA13LA360
- 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
Quest Aircraft Company LLC KODIAK 100
- Aircraft type
- Quest KODIAK 100
- 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
- N10PZ
- Operator
- Paxton Aviation
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Friends Ultralightport (MA07), Westport, MATo Orange Municipal Airport (ORE), Orange, MA
- Aircraft age
- About 3 years (built 2010)
- 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
- Takeoff
- 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
- Unknown or undetermined
- 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
- Not determined › Not determined
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
During departure from the 1,635-foot-long turf runway, the airplane impacted rocks and trees past the runway end. The pilot reported that he could not recall the events of the accident. One of the four passengers reported that he heard the engine advance to takeoff power "normally" and that he believed that the airplane became airborne before impact. Review of the manufacturer's performance data revealed that, given the atmospheric and loading conditions on the day of the accident, the distance required to take off and clear a 50-foot obstacle was about 920 feet. Examination of the flight control system revealed no mechanical malfunctions or anomalies that would have precluded normal operation.
Examination of the engine revealed significant circumferential rubbing, frictional heat discoloration, and material smearing signatures in the power section consistent with the presence of engine power at the time of impact. In addition, the compressor discharge air (P3) line pneumatic "B" nut fitting at the fuel control unit was visibly loose, and the "B" nut could be moved by hand. Further examination revealed that the No. 4 gearbox bolts and washers had been pulled from their threaded seats, likely during the impact sequence. The engine operated normally during postaccident functional checks. To determine the effect of the loose "B" nut fitting on the engine operation, the P3 line was manually manipulated to simulate takeoff vibrations, and the fitting was loosened to the extent possible; however, neither action affected the engine operation.
Probable cause
A failure to achieve a positive climb rate after takeoff for reasons that could not be determined because postaccident examination of the airframe and engine did not reveal any mechanical malfunctions or anomalies that would have precluded normal operation.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ERA13LA360
- Event ID
- 20130811X33918
- Case number
- ERA13LA360
- 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: dc07c314c9d91225a508d9db78a63d01ae72226d8d9d8c19a542b6979596f641; retrieved 2026-09-15T22:28:41.712Z.