ERA14LA011 · Boeing B75N1
Boeing B75N1 · Accident: low altitude operation/event during initial climb
From Tampa North Aero Park Airport (X39) to Tampa North Aero Park Airport (X39)
Event
- NTSB case
- ERA14LA011
- 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
- 1 · 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 B75N1
- Aircraft type
- Boeing B75
- 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
- N65355
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Tampa North Aero Park Airport (X39), Tampa, FLTo Tampa North Aero Park Airport (X39), Tampa, FL
- Aircraft age
- About 71 years (built 1942)
- 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
- Low altitude operation/event
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- None
Cause areas
- 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 reported that he briefed the planned jump with the parachutists before departure during a festival and that the parachutists were supposed to jump after reaching 2,800 feet mean sea level (msl). About 30 minutes before the jump, the right-wing parachutist requested to depart from the right wing rather than the front seat; the pilot and left-wing parachutist agreed. The preflight brief did not address whether or not the parachutists would drift over the crowd at the airfield or not. During takeoff, the two parachutists were standing on the lower wing to the left and right of the cockpit and gripping the handhold on the upper wing surface. They were not wearing safety harnesses. The pilot reported that when the airplane was climbing through about 1,000 feet msl, the right-wing parachutist departed the airplane in a "stable and controlled jump posture" but before the planned jump altitude of 2,800 feet. The pilot entered a left turn, gained visual contact with the parachutist, and saw the parachute canopy open before the parachutist impacted the ground. The pilot returned to the airpark without further incident.
Forensic toxicology samples taken from the accident parachutist were negative for drugs, alcohol, and carbon monoxide. Examination of the airframe, engine, and parachute systems revealed no preaccident mechanical malfunction or anomalies that would have precluded normal operations. It could not be determined why the right wing parachutist departed the airplane before the planned jump altitude or why he delayed opening his parachute canopy, which resulted in his subsequent impact with trees and terrain.
Probable cause
The parachutist’s low altitude departure from the right wing before the planned altitude and his delayed opening of his parachute canopy, which resulted in impact with a tree and then the ground before the parachute fully opened.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ERA14LA011
- Event ID
- 20131022X05519
- Case number
- ERA14LA011
- 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, damage. 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: 6cae96b45acdc076ba81d3f395e1fd39afb2c89ab8dbce292e7deea27637b824; retrieved 2026-09-14T16:05:35.220Z.