WPR20LA001 · Buckeye BREEZE
Buckeye BREEZE · Accident: flight control system malfunction/failure during initial climb
From Moore, UT to Huntington Municipal Airport (69V)
Event
- NTSB case
- WPR20LA001
- 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
Buckeye BREEZE
- Aircraft type
- Buckeye BREEZE
- 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
- N582UT
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Moore, UTTo Huntington Municipal Airport (69V), Huntington, UT
- Aircraft age
- About 17 years (built 2002)
- 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
- Flight control system malfunction/failure
- 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
- Aircraft › Aircraft systems
- Personnel issues › Task performance
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot flew to a landmark in his powered parachute aircraft with a group of four other powered parachute aircraft. After landing and spending some time at the landmark, the pilot and the group then returned to their aircraft to depart. The first two aircraft departed the area and circled above the takeoff area while they waited for the other aircraft to depart. Each of the pilots had established communications on a common radio frequency that they used to announce their position and intentions. The accident aircraft lifted off the ground about 200 ft and immediately entered a steep left bank angle. The pilot reported over the radio that he was experiencing a problem, and a member of the group advised him to land. While still in a steep left turn, the aircraft made about one and a half revolutions near the departure area then began a steady descent from a low altitude. The aircraft impacted the ground and came to rest on its right side.
A postaccident photograph showed the left steering line draped over a bracket that attached the light beacon to the aircraft frame. A technical expert described how the steering line could have become wrapped around the bracket by moving the riser that was positioned above it. This would have created a pinch point and prevented the line from being moved in any direction, thus inhibiting the pilot’s ability to steer the aircraft. As there were no other mechanical anomalies with the aircraft, the pinch point in the steering line was likely the problem the pilot reported during the accident flight.
It is unknown if the pilot performed any preflight inspection of the aircraft before departing on the accident flight. However, had he performed a thorough inspection of the steering lines and pulled them taut as discussed in the Federal Aviation Administration’s guidance, it is likely that he would have detected the pinch point and prevented the in-flight loss of control. Thus, the pilot’s improper preflight inspection and failure to ensure the continuity of the aircraft steering lines resulted in a loss of control in flight and impact with terrain.
Probable cause
The pilot’s improper preflight inspection and detection of a pinch point in the steering line, which resulted in a loss of control in flight and impact with terrain.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record WPR20LA001
- Event ID
- 20191007X22236
- Case number
- WPR20LA001
- 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, cause areas. 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: ab51393d43cda0a81cd6f96d21a9f7e1f251f013a483adf1bc603d44c1ae6edb; retrieved 2026-09-15T07:06:39.192Z.