CEN24LA087 · Piper J3C 65
Piper J3C 65 · Accident: loss of control in flight during initial climb
From an unrecorded airport to Detroit Lakes Airport (DTL)
Event
- NTSB case
- CEN24LA087
- 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
- 0
- 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
Piper J3C 65
- Aircraft type
- Piper J3
- 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
- N1401V
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo Detroit Lakes Airport (DTL), Detroit Lakes, MN
- Aircraft age
- About 81 years (built 1943)
- 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
- Initial climb
- 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
- Personnel issues › Task performance
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot reported that he completed a full preflight inspection of the airplane with no issues noted, including inspecting all the flight control surfaces. During the run-up, the pilot checked all the flight controls and he noted they “all checked perfect.” The pilot was operating at a remote airport that was surrounded by pine trees, about 90 ft tall, on all sides. The takeoff roll from the snow-covered runway was “normal” and about 150 ft agl, the airplane “started turning/pulling left” in a descending turn. The pilot attempted to correct the turn and descent to no avail. The pilot decided to continue to use engine power until the airplane impacted trees. The airplane impacted several trees and came to rest nose down. The pilot was able to egress from the airplane without further incident. The airplane sustained substantial damage to the fuselage, both wings, and the engine mount. The pilot reported there were no preimpact mechanical malfunctions or failures with the airframe or the engine that would have precluded normal operation. A postaccident examination of the airframe established flight control continuity.
Probable cause
The pilot’s failure to maintain directional control and terrain clearance during initial climb, that resulted in an impact with trees and terrain.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CEN24LA087
- Event ID
- 20240111193640
- Case number
- CEN24LA087
- 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: 2c2a0f8513a9a4e68080138cbe1dd1c7b215827c4f1caa591f831253510de833; retrieved 2026-09-16T18:25:53.052Z.