Eller BD-5B N194EC

Summary

On 9 May 1998 at about 20:00 local time, a Eller BD-5B registered N194EC was involved in an accident near Falcon, Colorado, United States. One person was on board and one was seriously injured. The aircraft was substantially damaged. The NTSB has published a probable cause for this accident; it is quoted in full below.

Date

9 May 1998 at 20:00

Classification

Accident

Location

Falcon, Colorado, United States

Coordinates

39.0304, -104.4806

Aircraft

Eller BD-5B

Registration

N194EC

Category

Airplane

Engines

1

Operator

Not recorded

Operating rule

Part 91: General Aviation

Purpose of flight

Unknown

Phase of flight

Not recorded

Aircraft damage

Substantial

Weather

VMC

Light

Day

NTSB number

FTW98LA211

1 person was seriously injured.

The vibration induced overload failure of the canopy holdback fitting resulting in reduced control capability. A factor was partial failure of one propeller blade for unknown reasons.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record. This site does not paraphrase or interpret it.

Read the full NTSB narrative

While on a local test flight, the aircraft developed a violent vibration and the canopy partially separated causing control of the aircraft to be reduced. To prevent a stall the pilot had to maintain an exaggerated nose down attitude with the aircraft and conducted a full stall hard landing short of the runway. Postcrash examination revealed that one of the wooden propeller blades had cracked. The examination did not provide any evidence that would have caused the blade strike, weakness in the wood, or inadequate laminate bonding.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record.