NTSB CAROL · Event
Event CEN21LA447
Aircraft involved
Probable cause & findings
The pilot’s diverted attention which resulted in an inadvertent descent and subsequent collision with a lake.
Factual narrative
The pilot reported that the gyroplane took off uneventfully. About 400 ft above the ground, the pilot’s hat started to blow off in the wind. Concerned his hat and headset would blow off into the pusher propeller, he adjusted his hat and headset to insure they were secure, but “lost focus on flying.” By the time he’d secured his hat and headset, the gyroplane was at too low of an altitude to recover from the descent. It impacted in a lake about ¼ mile from the departure end of the runway. The gyroplane’s main rotor assembly sustained substantial damage. The pilot reported there were no preaccident mechanical malfunctions or failures with the aircraft that would have precluded normal operations. Source: NTSB Aviation Accident Database Retrieved: 2026-02-12
NTSB Findings
Hierarchical cause / factor breakdown from the FAA bulk avdata database. Each finding tagged C (Cause) or F (Factor).
- — Personnel issues-Task performance-Use of equip/info-Aircraft control-Pilot
- — Personnel issues-Psychological-Attention/monitoring-Attention-Pilot
- — Environmental issues-Physical environment-Terrain-Water-Contributed to outcome
Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file
NTSB_2021_CEN21LA447.txt.
Findings + structured fields enriched from FAA avall.mdb.
Full investigation docket on
data.ntsb.gov ↗.
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