Quad City CHALLENGER N850RW

Summary

On 5 June 2020 at about 23:25 local time, a Quad City CHALLENGER registered N850RW was involved in an accident near Wurtsboro, New York, United States. 2 people were on board and 2 died. The aircraft was substantially damaged. The NTSB has published a probable cause for this accident; it is quoted in full below.

Date

5 June 2020 at 23:25

Classification

Accident

Location

Wurtsboro, New York, United States

Nearest airport

Wurtsboro-Sullivan County (N82)

Coordinates

41.5947, -74.4564

Aircraft

Quad City CHALLENGER

Registration

N850RW

Category

Airplane

Year built

2012

Engines

1

Operator

Not recorded

Operating rule

Part 91: General Aviation

Purpose of flight

Flight Test

Phase of flight

Not recorded

Route

Wurtsboro → Unknown

Aircraft damage

Substantial

Weather

VMC

Light

Day

NTSB number

ERA20LA207

2 people died.

A loss of control after takeoff due to the pilot’s improper use of ballast weight. Contributing was the pilot’s decision to operate the airplane above its maximum gross weight.

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

Read the full NTSB narrative

According to a witness, the airplane was tail heavy, so the pilot/owner and student pilot had added ballast to the front of the airplane and performed several high-speed taxi runs before departing for a test flight. After liftoff, the airplane began to yaw left and continued a left turn. The airplane did not climb and remained just above the treetops. The witness further reported that it sounded as though the pilot reduced engine power just before he lost sight of the airplane over the trees then heard the impact. The damage to trees and to the airplane was consistent with a low-energy impact. Examination of the airframe and engine revealed no evidence of mechanical malfunctions or failures that would have precluded normal operation. There were three canvas bags of sand ballast located in the forward section of the airplane that, when full, would have weighed about 22 lbs each. One of the ballast bags was wrapped around the bottom of the left rudder pedal and significantly torn, with about 5 lbs of sand remaining in the bag. There was a small amount of sand nearby, but not enough to total 22 lbs. The heavily torn ballast bag wrapped around the left rudder pedal and lack of residual sand nearby suggested that the base of the left rudder pedal likely got stuck on the left ballast bag at some point during the short flight, interfering with the flight controls and resulting in the left yaw and turn. The sand that escaped the torn left bag was likely scattered during the impact sequence, leaving very little sand near the left ballast bag when the airplane came to rest. Weight and balance calculations revealed that the airplane was 127 lbs over the maximum gross weight of 800 lbs, of which about 66 lbs was ballast. Given this information, it is likely that the pilot’s improper use of ballast weight resulted in further exceedance of the airplane’s maximum gross weight and that the placement of the ballast resulted in an interference with the rudder controls. It is likely that these two factors limited the airplane’s controllability and ability to climb, and directly contributed to the loss of control during takeoff and subsequent impact with terrain.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record.