ERA20LA183 · Ercoupe 415 CD
Ercoupe 415 CD · Accident: collision with terrain/object (non-CFIT) on approach
From Hawkins County Airport (RVN) to Hawkins County Airport (RVN)
Event
- NTSB case
- ERA20LA183
- 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
Ercoupe 415 CD
- Aircraft type
- Ercoupe 415
- 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
- N3956H
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Hawkins County Airport (RVN), Rogersville, TNTo Hawkins County Airport (RVN), Rogersville, TN
- Aircraft age
- About 73 years (built 1947)
- 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
- Approach · VFR pattern final
- 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 with terrain/object (non-CFIT)
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Destroyed
Cause areas
- Aircraft › Aircraft oper/perf/capability
- Personnel issues › Action/decision
- Personnel issues › Physical
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
During a short local flight, the pilot was maneuvering the airplane in the vicinity of the airport at an altitude lower than was typical, and a bank that was steeper, than a witness who was used to seeing the airplane had viewed in the past. Two pilot-rated witnesses described that later when returning to the airport, the airplane's engine sounded normal as the airplane entered the airport traffic pattern to land, but that its altitude was too low on final approach. The airplane then suddenly banked right when it struck the tops of trees before impacting terrain.
While the wreckage was partially consumed by a post-impact fire, postaccident examination of what remained from the airframe and engine revealed no evidence of any preimpact mechanical malfunctions or failures that would have precluded normal operation. Additionally, damage signatures observed on the propeller and the witness accounts indicated that the engine was likely operating normally at the time of the accident. Given the available information, it is likely that the airplane struck trees after the pilot descended too low while on final approach to the runway. Toxicological testing identified the sedating antihistamine diphenhydramine at therapeutic levels in samples from the pilot. This medication is known to cause psychomotor slowing, sedation, and impaired cognition. It is possible that the pilot’s performance was impaired, which could have contributed to his failure to maintain a proper glidepath while approaching the runway.
Probable cause
The pilot's failure to maintain a proper glidepath on approach, which resulted in an inflight collision with trees and terrain. Contributing to the accident was the pilot’s use of an impairing medication.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ERA20LA183
- Event ID
- 20200515X53234
- Case number
- ERA20LA183
- 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: 44ce8020ec889c9f2ddafe80f404dd7c30355dbc9c2debf1f706001d6cf6d3c3; retrieved 2026-09-15T07:14:44.596Z.