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WPR18LA107 · Cubcrafters Inc CC11-160

18 Mar 2018 · Browns Valley, CA, United States

Plane Fun Cubcrafters Inc CC11-160 · Accident while maneuvering

From Lincoln Regional Karl Harder Field (LHM) to Lincoln Regional Karl Harder Field (LHM)

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Event

NTSB case
WPR18LA107
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

Cubcrafters Inc CC11-160

Aircraft type
Cubcrafters CC11
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
N1951B
Operator
Plane Fun
Onboard fatalities
Unknown
Route
From Lincoln Regional Karl Harder Field (LHM), Lincoln, CATo Lincoln Regional Karl Harder Field (LHM), Lincoln, CA
Aircraft age
About 2 years (built 2016)
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
Miscellaneous/other
Also codedOther events the NTSB coded in the sequence, such as a wire strike after a loss of power. Flight Findings uses them for its kinds of event. Glossary
Wire
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 › Psychological

Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.

NTSB narrative

The private pilot reported that he was maneuvering at an altitude of about 500 ft over an unpopulated area and studying the river when the airplane must have gone below 500 ft and hit something. A fire started, and the airplane subsequently crashed in the river and sustained substantial damage to the fuselage and both wings. The pilot reported that he was later told that he hit a power line.

The river runs generally east to west. The power lines were about 200 ft tall, ran across the river generally north and south, and extended about 1 mile. The wreckage was located about 2,000 ft east of the power lines in about 3 ft of water. Power line company personnel reported that six power lines were found separated.

The pilot reported that there were no preaccident mechanical malfunctions or failures with the airplane that would have precluded normal operation. The pilot likely was not vigilant in monitoring the environment for obstructions and did not maintain a sufficient altitude to avoid the power lines.

Probable cause

The pilot’s failure to adequately monitor the environment and maintain a sufficient altitude to avoid power lines.

Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset

Sources

NTSB record WPR18LA107
Event ID
20180318X34350
Case number
WPR18LA107
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: 354af0acd6b7b78f8d38cfb8cdfb5a50218ae3d741d5831157dd16702444f0df; retrieved 2026-09-16T06:39:44.299Z.