WPR17LA116 · Extra Flugzeugbau EA 300/S
Extra Flugzeugbau EA 300/S · Accident: part(s) separation from aircraft during takeoff
From Eastern Oregon Regional Airport at Pendleton (PDT) to Eastern Oregon Regional Airport at Pendleton (PDT)
Event
- NTSB case
- WPR17LA116
- 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
Extra Flugzeugbau EA 300/S
- Aircraft type
- Extra EA-300
- 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
- N68PW
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Eastern Oregon Regional Airport at Pendleton (PDT), Pendelton, ORTo Eastern Oregon Regional Airport at Pendleton (PDT), Pendelton, OR
- Aircraft age
- About 18 years (built 1999)
- 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 · rejected 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
- Part(s) separation from aircraft
- 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 structures
- Personnel issues › Task performance
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The private pilot reported that, shortly after starting the takeoff roll for the local flight, the canopy lifted up and then separated from the airplane. The airplane subsequently veered left, exited the runway, and struck an airport runway sign during the aborted takeoff, which resulted in substantial damage to the canopy and wing.
Postaccident examination of the airplane did not reveal any anomalies with the canopy, canopy attachment bolts, mounting bolt holes, latches, or locking mechanism that would have precluded normal operation.
Two normal checklists (the Before Starting Engine and Taxi checklists) in the airplane's pilot's operating handbook call for the pilot to check that the canopy is closed and locked before takeoff. The pilot stated that he did not remember checking that the canopy was locked and also stated that he was fairly sure that it was not latched; thus, it is likely that the pilot did not ensure that the canopy was properly secured before takeoff.
Probable cause
The pilot’s failure to follow checklists to ensure the canopy was secured before takeoff.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record WPR17LA116
- Event ID
- 20170601X11435
- Case number
- WPR17LA116
- 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: 2be047f9dcac0e841a0e8a65736e2a2c7108bf261706c71943de1b17f1fd3c55; retrieved 2026-09-16T05:21:08.511Z.