CEN14LA316 · Grazhopper TRIKE
Grazhopper TRIKE · Accident: loss of engine power (total) while maneuvering
From Skydive Chicago Airport (8N2) to Skydive Chicago Airport (8N2)
Event
- NTSB case
- CEN14LA316
- 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
Grazhopper TRIKE
- Aircraft type
- Grazhopper TRIKE
- Category
- Powered Parachute
- 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
- UNREG
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Skydive Chicago Airport (8N2), Ottawa, ILTo Skydive Chicago Airport (8N2), Ottawa, IL
- 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
- Maneuvering · low-altitude flying
- 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 engine power (total)
- 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 › Action/decision
- Personnel issues › Physical
- Personnel issues › Task performance
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The noncertificated pilot was conducting a personal local flight in a powered-parachute. The pilot reported that he was flying the powered-parachute at low altitude through mist over the spillway of a dam when the engine suddenly lost power. The powered-parachute subsequently impacted the surface of turbulent flood waters just below the dam. After impact, the deflated parachute canopy flew over and covered the top of the airframe, which was then submerged or partially submerged. The pilot was able to free himself; however, the passenger was not able to exit and was fatally injured. A police officer who interviewed the pilot about 5 hours after the accident reported that the pilot's speech pattern was rambling and that the pilot appeared to be "under the influence of something."
Blood specimens collected from the pilot more than 6 hours after the accident showed high levels of alprazolam and hydrocodone and low levels of oxycodone and diazepam. Although the exact blood levels of all four medications at the time of the accident could not be determined, it is likely that all of these sedating drugs were present in the pilot's system at or well above the normal therapeutic range at the time of the accident. The high levels these drugs and the evidence of impairment described by the police officer just 5 hours after the accident indicate that the pilot was impaired by the effects of multiple sedating medications around the time of the accident, which likely effected his decision-making and flight skills.
Probable cause
The noncertificated pilot’s improper decision to operate the powered-parachute at low altitude through mist in a confined area while he was impaired by multiple sedating medications, which resulted in his loss of control of the parachute and subsequent impact with water.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CEN14LA316
- Event ID
- 20140624X45539
- Case number
- CEN14LA316
- 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: local date, investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 2014-06-24.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 56066af9705b454032ad6ecae7fa3fe06c8473296f7b848561230282a2aa0b63; retrieved 2026-09-14T17:20:28.708Z.