NTSB CAROL · Event
Event SEA06CA128
Aircraft involved
Probable cause & findings
The pilot's failure to maintain aircraft control, which resulted in an off-airport landing. Contributing factors were the pilot's lack of familiarity with the airplane and the soft terrain.
Factual narrative
On June 22, 2006, about 1900 mountain daylight time, an un-registered un-certificated experimental amateur-built Challenger II airplane sustained substantial damage when it encountered soft terrain during an off-airport landing following a loss of control in the initial climb after takeoff from Emmett Municipal Airport, Emmett, Idaho. The un-certificated pilot and the passenger, who was the airplane's owner, were not injured. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed and no flight plan was filed for the 14 CFR Part 91 personal local flight. The pilot reported that he had about 500 hours flight time in ultralights including time in a Challenger I, but he had not previously flown a Challenger II. Before the flight, he reviewed the Challenger II owner's manual and found that it recommended use of full flapperons for takeoff. Therefore, he set full flapperons. After takeoff, as the airplane over flew the end of the runway, it "stopped" climbing. The pilot attempted to raise the flaperrons, but could not reach the crank handle, which was located above and behind his head. He was "able to keep nose level at full throttle" and executed an off-airport landing in a hay field. During the ground roll in the soft terrain, the nose landing gear collapsed. The pilot reported that he had about 500 hours flight time in ultralights including time in a Challenger I, but he had not previously flown a Challenger II. Before the flight, he reviewed the Challenger II owner's manual and found that it recommended use of full flapperons for takeoff. Therefore, he set full flapperons. After takeoff, as the airplane over flew the end of the runway, it "stopped" climbing. The pilot attempted to raise the flaperrons, but could not reach the crank handle, which was located above and behind his head. He was "able to keep nose level at full throttle" and executed an off-airport landing in a hay field. During the ground roll in the soft terrain, the nose landing gear collapsed. Source: NTSB Aviation Accident Database (Pre-2008 Archive) Retrieved: 2026-02-12
Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file
NTSB_2006_SEA06CA128.txt.
Findings + structured fields enriched from FAA avall.mdb.
Full investigation docket on
data.ntsb.gov ↗.
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Related research
What the literature says.
Academic papers and agency reports matching this event's aircraft type or causal vocabulary (loss of control). Sourced from NASA NTRS, NTSB Safety Studies, FAA CAMI, AOPA Air Safety Institute, Embry-Riddle Scholarly Commons, arXiv, and the Semantic Scholar academic graph.
- Embry-Riddle Scholarly Commons 2025 · Journal article (JAAER)
A Scoping Review of Aviation Loss of Control Inflight Research
Loss of control – inflight (LOC-I) contributes to aircraft accidents at unacceptably high rates. Significant industry efforts and research have aimed to improve LOC-I prevention, detection, and recove…
- SKYbrary (Eurocontrol) 2024 · SKYbrary article
Loss of Control In-Flight (LOC-I) — SKYbrary Knowledge Base
SKYbrary comprehensive knowledge-base entry on Loss of Control In-Flight — definitions, contributing factors, accident case studies (Air France 447, Colgan 3407), and prevention strategies.
- NTSB Aircraft Accident Reports 2022 · Accident report
Loss of Control on Takeoff in Icing Conditions — Citation 560XL
Cessna Citation 560XL fatal takeoff icing accident, March 2018. Investigation of a Citation 560XL loss-of-control takeoff accident in icing conditions.
- Semantic Scholar 2021 · Article (Aviation)
ANALYSIS OF GENERAL AVIATION FIXED-WING AIRCRAFT ACCIDENTS INVOLVING INFLIGHT LOSS OF CONTROL USING A STATE-BASED APPROACH
Inflight loss of control (LOC-I) is a significant cause of General Aviation (GA) fixed-wing aircraft accidents. The United States National Transportation Safety Board’s database provides a rich source…
- NASA NTRS 2021 · Presentation
Use of Design of Experiments in Determining Neural Network Architectures for Loss of Control Detection
Abstract—We describe empirical methods for selecting a neural network architecture to implement belief state inference on generic commercial transport aircraft.
- NASA NTRS 2021 · Conference Paper
Use of Design of Experiments in Determining Neural Network Architectures for Loss of Control Detection
We describe empirical methods for selecting a neural network architecture to implement belief state inference on generic commercial transport aircraft.
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