ERA20CA252 · Furlong CA-6
Furlong CA-6 · Accident: loss of control in flight during takeoff
From Central Jersey Regional Airport (47N) to Van Sant Airport (9N1)
Event
- NTSB case
- ERA20CA252
- 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
Furlong CA-6
- Aircraft type
- Furlong CA-6
- 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
- N12LF
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Central Jersey Regional Airport (47N), Manville, NJTo Van Sant Airport (9N1), Erwinna, PA
- Aircraft age
- About 22 years (built 1998)
- 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
- 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
- Loss of control in flight
- 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
- Environmental issues › Physical environment
- Not determined › Not determined
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The private pilot had just flown his tailwheel equipped airplane into the airport to purchase fuel, where the flight was uneventful. After purchasing fuel, the pilot performed another flight control check and initiated the takeoff. During the takeoff roll, as the tail came off the ground, the airplane began to pull to the left. The pilot continued with the takeoff but as the airplane climbed to about 40 ft above the ground, it continued to pull left despite right rudder and aileron input. The pilot was unable to stop the turn and attempted to land the airplane. The airplane struck a chain link fence adjacent to airport property and flipped over resulting in substantial damage to both wings, right horizontal stabilizer and elevator, vertical stabilizer and rudder. A postaccident examination of the airplane by a Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) maintenance inspector confirmed flight control continuity between the cockpit controls and all primary flight controls, including the rudder. Further inspection revealed that the right rudder pedals were displaced full right; however, impact damage of the rudder precluded the ability to conclusively verify proper system operation. The pilot reported that he had no previous operational or mechanical issues with the rudder prior to the accident.
Probable cause
A loss of directional control on takeoff for undetermined reasons.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ERA20CA252
- Event ID
- 20200715X94450
- Case number
- ERA20CA252
- 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: 1fb58d0cca1ddc242faac8d978aba5f144caa26525ca252332a814e556bb22d5; retrieved 2026-09-16T12:09:33.152Z.