CEN25LA240 · Cub Crafters CCK-1865
Cub Crafters CCK-1865 · Accident: low altitude operation/event while maneuvering
From Astronaut Kent Rominger Airport (RCV) to Ralph Wenz Field (PNA)
Event
- NTSB case
- CEN25LA240
- 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
Cub Crafters CCK-1865
- Aircraft type
- Cub Crafters 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
- N952SA
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Astronaut Kent Rominger Airport (RCV), Del Norte, COTo Ralph Wenz Field (PNA), Pinedale, WY
- Aircraft age
- About 1 year (built 2024)
- 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
- Maneuvering · low-altitude flying
- 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
- Low altitude operation/event
- 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 › Action/decision
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot reported that he was overflying a mountain plateau about 100 ft. As he overflew the plateau with 2 or 3 notches of flaps and about 60 kts, he noticed that the terrain was rising on both sides and ahead of the flight path. The pilot increased the throttle to full power and initiated a climb; the angle of attack indicator began to alert the pilot to an impending stall. The pilot estimated that the airplane would not be able to clear trees in front of the flight path and began a slow turn to the right. The airplane then struck a tree, impacted the terrain, and came to rest upright on its nose. The airplane sustained substantial damage to both wings. The pilot stated that the accident could have been prevented if he had assessed the density altitude and airplane performance for the flight and flown at a higher airspeed and altitude. The pilot reported that there were no preimpact mechanical malfunctions or failures that would have precluded normal operations.
Probable cause
The pilot’s failure to maintain clearance from terrain while maneuvering at low altitude in mountainous terrain. Contributing was the pilot’s inadequate preflight planning and aeronautical decision making.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CEN25LA240
- Event ID
- 20250707200479
- Case number
- CEN25LA240
- 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: fab2cbf447bd958fddc64e9312d6f490e05cf0433184258551eac23d80d0bc82; retrieved 2026-09-16T20:03:19.025Z.