22 Sep 2022: ZENITH CH 750

22 Sep 2022: ZENITH CH 750 (N2992W) — Unknown operator

No fatalities • Cincinnati, OH, United States

Probable cause

The airplane builder’s installation of incorrect hardware in the control yoke assembly, which resulted in a loss of control during takeoff.

— NTSB Determination

Accident narrative

On September 22, 2022, about 0700 eastern daylight time, an experimental amateur-built Zenith CH 750, N2992W, was substantially damaged when it was involved in an accident at near Cincinnati, Ohio. The private pilot was not injured. The airplane was operated as a Title 14 Code of Federal Regulations Part 91 personal flight. According to the pilot, during the takeoff roll he noticed that “something felt wrong.” He reduced power and the airplane started to “bounce” on the runway. The airplane briefly climbed before landing hard on the nosewheel. An examination of the airplane by a Federal Aviation Administration inspector revealed that the engine firewall was buckled. Further examination of the airplane revealed that a control yoke nut and bolt were missing. Both pieces of hardware were subsequently located inside the fuselage. An examination of the hardware revealed that it did not look like any of the other hardware that was attached to the control system, and review of the engineering drawings for the airplane revealed that the separated nut and bolt were not the correct type called for (bolt secured with castle nut and cotter pin). The pilot further described the findings by stating that, “There was a hardware store nut used on the wrong type bolt. Nut came off and bolt fell out [of] elevator control.” A review of the airplane’s maintenance records revealed that it had undergone three annual condition inspections since it had been completed. The records did not note that any work had been performed on the control yoke or replacement of any flight control hardware.

Contributing factors

  • Owner/builder
  • Not installed/available

Conditions

Weather
VMC, wind 330/13kt, vis 10sm

Loading the flight search…

What you can do on Flight Finder

  • Search flights between any two airports with live fares.
  • By aircraft — pick a plane model (e.g. Boeing 787, Airbus A350) and see every route it flies from your origin.
  • Route map — click any airport worldwide to explore its destinations, or draw a radius to find nearby airports.
  • Global aviation safety — aviation accident database, 5,200+ records since 1980, with map and rankings by aircraft and operator.
  • NTSB safety feed — recent U.S. aviation accidents and incidents from the official NTSB CAROL database, updated daily.

Frequently asked questions

How do I search flights by aircraft type on FlightFinder?

Pick an aircraft model — Boeing 737, Airbus A320, A380, Boeing 787 Dreamliner and more — enter your origin airport, and FlightFinder shows every route that plane flies from there with live fares.

Which aircraft types can I filter by?

We support Boeing 737/747/757/767/777/787, the full Airbus A220/A319/A320/A321/A330/A340/A350/A380 family, Embraer E170/E175/E190/E195, Bombardier CRJ and Dash 8, and the ATR 42/72 turboprops.

Is FlightFinder free to use?

Search and schedules are free. Pro ($4.99/month, $39/year, or $99 one-time lifetime) unlocks the enriched flight card — on-time stats, CO₂ per passenger, amenities, live gate & weather — plus My Trips with push alerts.

Where does the route data come from?

Live schedules come from Amadeus, AeroDataBox and Travelpayouts. Observed routes (which aircraft actually flew a given city pair) are crowdsourced from adsb.lol ADS-B data under the Open Database License.