WPR24FA001 · Cubcrafters Inc CCK-1865
Tesla Sunsets Cubcrafters Inc CCK-1865 · Accident: collision during takeoff/landing
Event
- NTSB case
- WPR24FA001
- 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
Cubcrafters Inc CCK-1865
- Aircraft type
- Cubcrafters CCK-1865
- 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
- N56DV
- Operator
- Tesla Sunsets
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo not recorded
- Aircraft age
- About 1 year (built 2022)
- 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
- Landing · aborted after touchdown
- 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 during takeoff/landing
- 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
- Personnel issues › Psychological
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot planned on landing on an upsloping hillside and made two low passes, performing reconnaissance over the landing area. The airplane touched down on the slope and then, for unknown reasons, the pilot aborted the landing. The airplane became airborne again and collided with a large rock immediately ahead. The impact with the rock resulted in the airplane’s left landing gear folding under the fuselage and a portion of the airframe becoming deformed. The airplane continued flying and entered a gradual left turn, during which the pilot stated over the radio, “I’m flying, but I’m having problems.” The airplane subsequently collided with terrain.
Examination of the wreckage revealed evidence that, as a result of the damage sustained during the airplane’s impact with the rock, the aileron cable likely became captured in the pulley housing, prohibiting the pilot from being able to directionally control the airplane.
The pilot had baseline cognitive deficits that adversely affected problem-solving, adaptability, and impulse control, such that the FAA determined his medical certification to be incompatible with aviation safety; these deficits may have negatively influenced his decisions and performance during the flight. The pilot also had underlying heart disease; however, the circumstances of the accident did not indicate a sudden medical event, and it is unlikely that the pilot’s heart disease contributed to the accident.
Probable cause
The pilot’s failure to see and avoid a rock during an aborted landing on a hillside, the collision with which resulted in damage to the aileron system that precluded subsequent control of the airplane.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record WPR24FA001
- Event ID
- 20231001193167
- Case number
- WPR24FA001
- 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: b795c7f8cf0ea03fb1407439b79d2642073cb3356401056be6a269a8a9db752e; retrieved 2026-09-15T08:06:24.126Z.