NTSB CAROL · Event
Event WPR12CA095
Aircraft involved
Probable cause & findings
The pilot's incorrect placement of the throttle prior to starting the airplane by hand. Contributing to the accident was that the pilot did not ensure that the airplane was restrained in a manner that would keep it from moving forward.
Factual narrative
The pilot, who due to a dead battery, planned on starting his airplane by hand-propping it. After loading his passenger, he set the throttle and the parking brake, but he elected not to tie the airplane down or place chocks in front of its wheels. When he pulled the propeller through, the engine started right up as he intended, but he had placed the throttle in a position that resulted in a higher RPM than he had expected. Due to the high RPM, the parking brake was unable to hold the airplane in position and it therefore started rolling forward with only the passenger inside. Although the pilot attempted to reenter the airplane, he was unable to do so. While the passenger was able to steer the airplane along the taxiway, she did not know how to stop it, and it eventually went through a fence and over an embankment. During the accident sequence both the fuselage and the wings were substantially damaged. According to the pilot, there was no malfunction or anomaly related to the parking brake system or the throttle mechanism. The pilot planned on starting his airplane by turning the propeller by hand, because the airplane’s battery was dead. After loading his passenger, he set the throttle and the parking brake, but he elected not to tie down the airplane or place chocks in front of its wheels. When he pulled the propeller through, the engine started immediately as he intended. However, he had placed the throttle in a position that resulted in a higher rpm than he expected. Due to the high rpm, the parking brake was unable to hold the airplane in position, and it started rolling forward with only the passenger inside. The pilot attempted to reenter the airplane, but he was unable to do so. Although the passenger was able to steer the airplane along the taxiway, she did not know how to stop it, and it eventually went through a fence and over an embankment. During the accident sequence, the fuselage and the wings were substantially damaged. According to the pilot, there were no malfunctions or anomalies with the parking brake system or the throttle mechanism. 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).
- C Aircraft-Aircraft power plant-Engine controls-Power lever-Incorrect use/operation - C
- F Aircraft-Aircraft handling/service-Parking/securing-Tie-down/mooring-Not specified - F
- C Personnel issues-Action/decision-Action-Incorrect action performance-Pilot - C
- F Personnel issues-Action/decision-Info processing/decision-Decision making/judgment-Pilot - F
Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file
NTSB_2012_WPR12CA095.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. Sourced from NASA NTRS, NTSB Safety Studies, FAA CAMI, AOPA Air Safety Institute, Embry-Riddle Scholarly Commons, arXiv, and the Semantic Scholar academic graph.
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- Semantic Scholar 2019 · Article (International Conference on Interaction Sciences)
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- arXiv 2025 · arXiv preprint
Spatially Consistent Air-to-Ground Channel Modeling and Simulation via 3D Shadow Projections
We present an approach for spatially-consistent semi-deterministic Air-to-Ground (A2G) channel modeling in Unmanned Aerial Vehicle-assisted networks.
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