WPR21LA199 · Harry Crosby (Vans) RV-6
Harry Crosby (Vans) RV-6 · Accident: loss of control on ground during takeoff
From an unrecorded airport to Livermore Municipal Airport (LVK)
Event
- NTSB case
- WPR21LA199
- 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
- Event fatalities
- Unknown
- 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
Harry Crosby (Vans) RV-6
- Aircraft type
- Harry Crosby (vans) RV-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
- N16CX
- Operator
- Harry L. Crosby · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo Livermore Municipal Airport (LVK), Livermore, CA
- Aircraft age
- About 17 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
- 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 on ground
- 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
- Personnel issues › Task performance
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot in the tailwheel-equipped airplane reported that, during the takeoff roll, the wind was variable and gusting from the left. He initiated the takeoff roll and applied left aileron and right rudder pedal pressure. The tailwheel lifted from the ground about 40 knots ground speed and the airplane veered to the left. Subsequently the pilot applied full right rudder and simultaneously applied full left aileron, but the airplane exited the left side of the runway. The pilot continued the takeoff roll as he believed that the airplane would start to climb. However, the airplane collided with a drainage culvert located about 25 ft from the left side of the runway. The airplane sustained substantial damage to the right-wing spar and ribs. The pilot reported that there were no preaccident mechanical failures or malfunctions with the airplane that would have precluded normal operations. The METAR located at the accident airport reported that about the time of the accident, the wind direction was from 230° with a velocity of 20 knots and gusting to 25 knots. The pilot was departing from runway 23.
Probable cause
The pilot’s failure to maintain directional control of the airplane during takeoff while operating in gusting wind conditions, which resulted in a runway excursion and subsequent collision with terrain.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record WPR21LA199
- Event ID
- 20210518103105
- Case number
- WPR21LA199
- 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: c53aaa896b8ab16bbae5f968f6ef068f90093f61c90f85d77b2efed2d89424f8; retrieved 2026-09-16T14:03:49.787Z.