CEN26LA180 · Just Aircraft JA-30 SuperSTOL
Just Aircraft JA-30 SuperSTOL · Accident: controlled flight into terrain/object (CFIT) during initial climb
Event
- NTSB case
- CEN26LA180
- 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
Just Aircraft JA-30 SuperSTOL
- Aircraft type
- Just JA-30
- 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
- N422T
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo not recorded
- Aircraft age
- About 10 years (built 2016)
- 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
- Controlled flight into terrain/object (CFIT)
- Also codedOther events the NTSB coded in the sequence, such as a wire strike after a loss of power. Flight Findings uses them for its kinds of event. Glossary
- Wire
- 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
- Environmental issues › Physical environment
- Personnel issues › Psychological
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot had just departed in the tailwheel equipped STOL (short takeoff and landing) airplane from his private rural grass airstrip about 25 minutes before sunset. The airplane collided with a power line about 500 yards south of the runway, impacted terrain, and came to rest inverted. A postimpact fire consumed a majority of the airplane. A witness stated that the airplane was flying normally before the power line collision. Aerial marker balls were not installed on the power line, nor were they required to be. The pilot stated that he did not remember the accident sequence due to his serious injuries, but before the accident, the wind was about 4 mph from the south and the density altitude was high. Prior to the accident flight, he completed multiple flights and landings in the airplane. Since this grass airstrip was on his property, he was aware of the power lines and frequently flew over them during takeoff and landing. The reason for the collision with the power line could not be determined.
Probable cause
The pilot’s failure to maintain clearance from a power line after takeoff.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CEN26LA180
- Event ID
- 20260506202946
- Case number
- CEN26LA180
- 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: local date, investigation status, cause areas. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 2026-04-26.
- API snapshot SHA-256: c6cdec8026d0dbdd83474a9158a99022464aa0e9a2999e7907d3a5324cf13080; retrieved 2026-09-16T21:24:25.157Z.