Madsen LANCAIR 320 N316M

Summary

On 6 May 2001 at about 14:08 local time, a Madsen LANCAIR 320 registered N316M was involved in an accident near Valparaiso, Indiana, United States. One person was on board and one died. The aircraft was destroyed. The NTSB has published a probable cause for this accident; it is quoted in full below.

Date

6 May 2001 at 14:08

Classification

Accident

Location

Valparaiso, Indiana, United States

Nearest airport

Porter County Municipal (VPZ)

Coordinates

41.4705, -87.0493

Aircraft

Madsen LANCAIR 320

Registration

N316M

Category

Airplane

Engines

1

Operator

Not recorded

Operating rule

Part 91: General Aviation

Purpose of flight

Flight Test

Phase of flight

Not recorded

Route

Valparaiso → Valparaiso

Aircraft damage

Destroyed

Weather

VMC

Light

Day

NTSB number

CHI01LA131

1 person died.

The pilot not maintaining aircraft control during the initial climb after takeoff and the inadvertent stall/spin. A factor to the accident was the pilot's total lack of experience in accident airplane.

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

Read the full NTSB narrative

The airplane was destroyed during an in-flight collision with the terrain and subsequent explosion/post-impact fire. A witness to the accident reported the airplane started the takeoff roll at the beginning of runway 09 and appeared to be accelerating slower than normal. The witness reported, "The takeoff roll looked normal ... but the aircraft seem to roll out longer than normal for this type of aircraft ... this aircraft seemed to roll about 3,500 feet before rotation. After rotation the aircraft pitched up and down several cycles then settled down. But after the pitch cycles stopped the plane was not climbing. The landing gear was not cycled up it remained down. The plane was about 200 feet altitude when the up, down pitching began again. I noted the plane climbed about another 50 ft. Then the plane rolled to the left and entered a vertical position and impacted the ground about 1,000 ft. north of the runway centerline. Aircraft exploded on impact." The pilot had logged two flights in the accident airplane, accumulating 1.2 hours. Excluding the two previous flights in the accident airplane, the pilot did not have any other flight time in the same model as the accident airplane. No anomalies were found that could be associated with a pre-impact condition.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record.