CEN14LA192 · Aerotrike SAFARI
Aerotrike SAFARI · Accident: loss of control in flight during takeoff
From Littlefield Municipal Airport (LIU) to Littlefield Municipal Airport (LIU)
Event
- NTSB case
- CEN14LA192
- 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
Aerotrike SAFARI
- Aircraft type
- Aerotrike SAFARI
- Category
- Weight-Shift
- 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
- N678TW
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Littlefield Municipal Airport (LIU), Littlefield, TXTo Littlefield Municipal Airport (LIU), Littlefield, TX
- Aircraft age
- About 13 years (built 2001)
- 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
- Loss of control in flight
- 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
- Personnel issues › Task performance
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The airport manager found the accident aircraft shortly after he arrived at the airport the morning of the accident. He did not observe any portion of the accident flight and was uncertain of the exact time of the accident. A postaccident examination of the aircraft did not reveal any anomalies consistent with a preimpact failure or malfunction.
The pilot of the accident aircraft did not hold any Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) pilot, mechanic, or repairman certificates, nor had he ever applied for or been issued an FAA medical certificate. An acquaintance of the pilot, who had also flown the aircraft, noted that the weight-shift-control trike was more difficult to fly than he had expected. He reportedly told the pilot that he should not fly the aircraft. He also noted that the pilot had not received any flight training in the make/model of the accident aircraft; however, the pilot reportedly informed him that he was planning to obtain flight instruction. The investigation obtained no record of the pilot's flight experience or of the aircraft's maintenance history.
The pilot exhibited localized scarring of the heart muscle that was likely not recent based on the absence of inflammation; the enlarged heart was consistent with chronic high blood pressure. The effect that either of these conditions might have had on the pilot during the accident flight, if any, could not be determined. The extent of coronary artery disease was mild and likely not an issue in the accident. Cyclobenzaprine, which was present in the operator's blood and is commonly used to treat muscle spasms, can cause sedation; however, accident risk with chronic use of the medication has not been well studied. As a result, the investigation could not determine whether this medication was impairing at the time of the accident. Metoprolol, detected in the pilot's blood and commonly used to treat high blood pressure, angina, or heart arrhythmias, rarely produces significant cognitive impairment and was likely not a factor in the accident. The presence of hydrocodone and its metabolites in urine samples, although not at reportable levels in blood samples, suggested a distant use of the medication and no ongoing impairment.
Probable cause
The non-certificated pilot's in-flight loss of control for reasons that could not be determined from the available evidence.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CEN14LA192
- Event ID
- 20140409X60140
- Case number
- CEN14LA192
- 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: f347d23aa915749f47877f348e12784b065fc2cff77b221421b5fd2ea0f02f39; retrieved 2026-09-14T16:12:53.549Z.