ERA18LA175 · Aircraft MFG & Development Co CH 2000 UNDESIGNAT
Bald Eagle Flying Club Aircraft MFG & Development Co CH 2000 UNDESIGNAT · Accident: collision during takeoff/landing
From Portland International Jetport (PWM) to Plum Island Airport (2B2)
Event
- NTSB case
- ERA18LA175
- 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
Aircraft MFG & Development Co CH 2000 UNDESIGNAT
- Aircraft type
- Aircraft MFG Development CH-2000
- 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
- N239AM
- Operator
- Bald Eagle Flying Club
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Portland International Jetport (PWM), Portland, METo Plum Island Airport (2B2), Newburyport, MA
- Aircraft age
- About 14 years (built 2004)
- 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
- Landing
- 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
- Collision during takeoff/landing
- 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
- Tree(s)
- 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
- Environmental issues › Conditions/weather/phenomena
- Environmental issues › Physical environment
- Personnel issues › Action/decision
- Personnel issues › Task performance
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The private pilot reported that, after a personal, cross-country flight, he entered the traffic pattern at the destination airport and noted a 20° left crosswind between 9 and 11 knots. The final approach was stable, but after crossing the threshold, the airplane descended and drifted left over grass adjacent to the runway. Because the airplane was not over the runway, the pilot chose to conduct a go-around and added full power, but the left main landing gear struck the grass next to the runway. The airplane did not climb and continued drifting left. The pilot retracted the flaps in an attempt to gain altitude; however, the airplane still did not climb, and the stall warning horn activated. He pushed the yoke forward to avoid a stall, and the airplane touched down on the grass and then impacted trees, which resulted in substantial damage to the wings and fuselage.
The pilot reported that there were no mechanical malfunctions or failures with the airplane that contributed to the accident. A stand of trees was located left of the runway. It is possible that the trees blocked the crosswind when the airplane descended below treetop level and that the pilot did not adequately compensate for the existing winds during the final approach and landing flare.
Probable cause
The pilot's failure to adequately compensate for existing crosswind conditions during the final approach and landing flare, which led to the airplane drifting left of the runway, and his delayed decision to go around, which resulted in the airplane touching down in the grass next to the runway and a subsequent collision with trees.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ERA18LA175
- Event ID
- 20180620X35049
- Case number
- ERA18LA175
- 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: 32649590b8b6329ca1aecd453e501cba09be30e882657ed482c93979f3aaf882; retrieved 2026-09-16T07:35:35.487Z.