ERA17FA156 · Luscombe 8 A
Luscombe 8 A · Accident: loss of control in flight during initial climb
From Skylark Airpark (7B6) to Skylark Airpark (7B6)
Event
- NTSB case
- ERA17FA156
- 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
- 2 · 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
Luscombe 8 A
- Aircraft type
- Luscombe 8
- 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
- N8554Y
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Skylark Airpark (7B6), East Windsor, CTTo Skylark Airpark (7B6), East Windsor, CT
- Aircraft age
- About 71 years (built 1946)
- 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 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
- Aircraft › Aircraft oper/perf/capability
- Personnel issues › Task performance
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The two private pilots were making a local flight in the airplane, which was equipped with dual flight controls. Both pilots were qualified to fly the airplane, and it could not be determined which pilot was manipulating the flight controls at the time of the accident. Following a flight of about 30 minutes duration, witnesses observed the airplane make a full stop landing, taxi back, and take off to the east. The engine sounded normal during the takeoff and initial climb. One witness then observed the airplane shaking, then tipping left and right, followed by an abrupt turn to the left. The nose of the airplane dropped, and the airplane descended rapidly to ground impact. The wreckage was found in a wooded area about 1/2 mile northeast of the airport in an inverted, nose-low attitude. An examination of the wreckage did not reveal evidence of any preexisting mechanical malfunctions or anomalies. Although the right fuel tank selector handle was installed backwards, the fuel valve was in the correct position for fuel to feed normally.
Toxicology testing of the left-seat pilot revealed the presence of diphenhydramine; however, the level detected was too low to quantify and was unlikely to be impairing.
Although the exact amount of fuel on board at the time of the accident could not be determined, estimates of the airplane's gross weight indicated that the airplane was between 54 lbs and 156 lbs over maximum gross weight. Based on the witness observation that the wings were rocking before the airplane abruptly turned left and then descended, it is likely that the pilot failed to maintain adequate airspeed while maneuvering aggressively, which resulted in exceedance of the critical angle of attack and an aerodynamic stall.
Probable cause
The flying pilot's excessive maneuvering of the airplane at a slow airspeed, which resulted in exceedance of the critical angle of attack and an aerodynamic stall. Contributing to the accident was the pilots' operation of the airplane over its maximum allowable gross weight.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ERA17FA156
- Event ID
- 20170418X01152
- Case number
- ERA17FA156
- 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: 44f28a67462d0366c138942769ad7b5236675f80fee0b5a7c6ee10a5fa80eeaa; retrieved 2026-09-15T06:01:14.392Z.