Tailwind W-8 N9424H

Summary

On 14 February 2026 at about 22:00 local time, a Tailwind W-8 registered N9424H was involved in an accident near Poplar Grove, Illinois, United States. One person was on board and one died. The aircraft was destroyed. No probable cause has been published yet; this accident is still under investigation.

Date

14 February 2026 at 22:00

Classification

Accident

Location

Poplar Grove, Illinois, United States

Nearest airport

Poplar Grove (C77)

Coordinates

42.3099, -88.8388

Aircraft

Tailwind W-8

Registration

N9424H

Category

Airplane

Year built

1962

Engines

1

Operator

Not recorded

Operating rule

Part 91: General Aviation

Purpose of flight

Personal

Phase of flight

Not recorded

Route

Rockford → Poplar Grove

Aircraft damage

Destroyed

Weather

VMC

Light

Day

NTSB number

ERA26FA114

1 person died.

The NTSB has not published a probable cause for this record. The investigation is still open; a final report usually follows one to two years after the accident.

Nothing about the cause is stated here that is not in the source record.

Read the full NTSB narrative

On February 14, 2026, about 1600 central standard time, an experimental, amateur-built Tailwind W-8 airplane, N9424H, was destroyed when it was involved in an accident near Poplar Grove, Illinois. The pilot was fatally injured. The airplane was operated as a Title 14 Code of Federal Regulations Part 91 personal flight.  According to witnesses, the pilot attended a local fly-in event at Cottonwood airport (1C8), Rockford, Illinois, and was returning to Poplar Grove Airport (C77) at the time of the accident. The pilot departed 1C8 about 15 minutes before the accident. The pilot was not in communication with air traffic control during the approximately 13 nm flight.   A witness who was working in his driveway when he heard the airplane stated that it sounded louder than normal. When he looked up, the airplane was in a nosedive and then impacted the ground in his yard.  The airplane impacted the ground between two homes in a residential community about .7 nm south of C77. The airplane came to rest inverted on a magnetic heading of 189º at an elevation of 839 ft. The airplane sustained extensive damage to the fuselage and wooden wings consistent with a high-energy impact. All major components of the airplane were accounted for at the accident site.  The engine was embedded about 3 ft into the ground. The propellor hub and remnants of the wooden propellor were impact separated and buried beneath the engine. The engine oil pan was crushed, and the engine was separated from the firewall. Approximately 3 gallons of fuel was observed in the impact crater when the engine was removed.   A portable iFly 740b gps was recovered from the accident site and forwarded to the NTSB vehicle recorders laboratory for data download. The airplane wreckage was recovered and retained for further examination.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record.