CEN21LA053 · Trick Trikes STSS
Trick Trikes STSS · Accident: loss of control in flight during takeoff
From Holden, MO (private airstrip) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- CEN21LA053
- 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
Trick Trikes STSS
- Aircraft type
- Trick Trikes STSS
- Category
- Weight-Shift
- 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
- N5152E
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Holden, MO (private airstrip)To not recorded
- Aircraft age
- About 11 years (built 2009)
- 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
- Destroyed
Cause areas
- Aircraft › Aircraft oper/perf/capability
- Personnel issues › Experience/knowledge
- Personnel issues › Task performance
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, not marked as estimated; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
A witness reported that after takeoff, the aircraft “turned sharply” and then “dipped low.” The aircraft impacted a tree line and came to rest in a harvested cornfield. A postimpact fire consumed the fabric sail (wing). Multiple structural components were separated consistent with impact forces. The engine was separated from the airframe and located with the wreckage. A postaccident examination did not identify any anomalies consistent with a preimpact failure or malfunction; however, the extent of the impact damage and the postimpact fire limited the scope of the examination. The pilot did not hold a pilot certificate as required by regulations and the aircraft operating limitations. In addition, although the noncertificated pilot had experience flying powered parachutes and trikes, he did not have any experience in the make/model trike involved in the accident. The circumstances of the accident are consistent with the noncertificated pilot’s loss of aircraft control during takeoff due to a lack of experience in the aircraft make/model.
Probable cause
The noncertificated pilot’s failure to maintain aircraft control during takeoff.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CEN21LA053
- Event ID
- 20201112102271
- Case number
- CEN21LA053
- 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, coordinates, 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: b063df380c384545fe37169924bcd3fa7f89c456de9ffba83eec6c19e9b1140b; retrieved 2026-09-15T07:22:21.398Z.