Loss of Control in Flight · NTSB WPR19FA133
Just JA30 SUPERSTOL — Chelan, WA
| Date | May 6, 2019 |
| Location | Chelan, WA |
| Aircraft | Just JA30 SUPERSTOL (amateur-built) |
| Purpose of flight | Personal |
| Conditions | Day · Visual Meteorological Cond |
| Phase / occurrence | Uncontrolled descent Collision with terr/obj (non-CFIT) |
| Pilot age | 69 |
| Pilot total time | 120 hrs · Low time |
| Time in type | 45 hrs |
| Fatalities | 1 |
Probable cause
NTSB findings
- Aircraft-Aircraft oper/perf/capability-Performance/control parameters-Angle of attack-Not attained/maintained
- Personnel issues-Task performance-Use of equip/info-Aircraft control-Pilot
What happened
The pilot was conducting a local flight. An airport surveillance camera captured the accident airplane departing from the runway and entering a nose high left turn. Shortly thereafter, the airplane's bank angle decreased, and its left yaw increased, and the airplane began to descend. A few seconds later, the airplane banked to the left, and entered a nose-low attitude just before impact with the ground.
Examination of the engine and the airframe revealed no preaccident anomalies that would have precluded normal operation. It is likely that the pilot exceeded the airplane's critical angle of attack during the initial climb, which resulted in an inadvertent stall and spin at an altitude too low to recover.