- Date
- September 27, 2025, 18:00 local (23:00 UTC)
- Place
- Harvard, IL
- Injuries
- 2 uninjured
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Phase of flight
- Takeoff
- Aircraft
- UNREGDe Havilland DH82
- Defining event
- Takeoff: Collision during takeoff/land
- Weather
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Status
- Completed · report October 30, 2025
- Report
- Approved by Office Director
- Investigation class
- Class 4 - Basic report with no Prelim publish
- NTSB office
- Central Region
- Parties
- FAA
- Case key
- 201740
From the NTSB’s public API. By law, NTSB reports can’t be used as evidence in lawsuits over the accident.
On this page
Probable cause
The pilot’s failure of the pilot to maintain directional control during takeoff which resulted in a collision with cornstalks. Contributing to the accident was the pilot’s partially obscured vision due to sun glare.
Findings · 3
NTSB’s coded findings. Those marked are part of the probable cause; the rest are factors or other findings. Under each, the cases with the same finding.
Sequence of events
The events NTSB coded, in order, by phase of flight. The defining event is the one that best describes the accident. Under each, the cases with the same event anywhere in their sequence.
Analysis
The pilot was attempting to depart in the biplane to the west from a turf runway with uncultivated cornstalks off the left side of the runway. The pilot was seated in the rear tandem seat, and his forward vision was partially obscured by the tailwheel airplane’s high nose attitude and the setting sun to the west. On takeoff roll, the pilot did not maintain centerline and the airplane’s left wing contacted the corn on the left side of the runway. The pilot lost directional control, the airplane ground looped and came to rest in the corn field. The airplane sustained substantial damage to the upper and lower right wings. The pilot reported that there were no mechanical malfunctions or failures with the airplane that would have precluded normal operation.
Aircraft
- Registration
- UNREG
- Reported as
- De Havilland DH82 (A)
- Category
- Airplane
- Serial number
- NM.206
- Built
- 1944
- Airframe hours
- 2,111
- Engine
- de Havilland Gipsy Major, 130 horsepower, reciprocating
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Flight
- Personal · Part 91
- Airworthiness certificate
- Standard, Utility; Standard, Normal
- Last inspection
- Annual · September 25, 2025 · 0 hours before
- Destination
- 68IS · Hampshire, IL
- Airport
- 0C0 · Dacy, runway 27, 3,589 × 105 ft, grass/turf
Flight crew
As NTSB recorded them. NTSB leaves out names.
- Role
- Pilot
- Age
- 66
- Injuries
- None
- Certificate
- Private
- Airplane ratings
- Single-engine land
- Medical
- BasicMed
- Last flight review
- April 23, 2024
- Seat
- Rear
- Restraint
- 4-point
- Flight hours
- 3,500 total · 150 in this make and model
Weather
- Conditions
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Wind
- 260° at 8 knots
- Visibility
- 10 statute miles
- Lowest ceiling
- None
- Temperature
- 82 °F, dew point 52 °F
- Altimeter
- 29.91 inHg
- Observed at
- KJVL, 22 nm away
- METAR
- METAR KJVL 272245Z 26008KT 10SM CLR 28/11 A2991=
Docket · 2
The files NTSB released with the investigation on November 4, 2025, on NTSB’s docket system: statements, records, photos and specialists’ reports. 3.0 MB in all.