MIA99LA119 · David C. Bock CHALLENGER II CHALLENGER
David C. Bock CHALLENGER II CHALLENGER · Accident: loss of control in flight while maneuvering
From Bob White Field (X61) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- MIA99LA119
- Event typeAccident: someone killed or seriously injured, or the aircraft substantially damaged (NTSB definition). Incident: an occurrence that affected or could have affected safety, short of that. Glossary
- Accident
- InvestigationHow far the investigation had got when the record was published: preliminary, ongoing, final or completed. Unknown where the source does not say. Glossary
- Completed
- API-reported fatalities
- 0 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- 0
- OperationWhat kind of flying it was, grouped by the rules it flew under: airline (US Part 121), air taxi and commuter (Part 135), general aviation (Part 91 and similar), military or government. Glossary
- General aviation
- WeatherVisual meteorological conditions (VMC): good enough to fly by looking outside. Instrument conditions (IMC): cloud or low visibility, flying by instruments. Glossary
- Visual Meteorological Cond
David C. Bock CHALLENGER II CHALLENGER
- Aircraft type
- David C Bock CHALLENGER
- Category
- Airplane
- RegistrationThe aircraft's tail number, such as N12345 or G-ABCD. Registrations are reissued, so the same one years apart can be a different aircraft. Glossary
- N929DB
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Bob White Field (X61), Zellwood, FLTo not recorded
- Aircraft age
- Not recorded
- Flight rulesThe regulations the flight operated under: in the US, Part 91 (general aviation), Part 121 (airlines), Part 135 (air taxi and commuter) and others; for flights abroad, the NTSB's coarser commercial or non-commercial code. Glossary
- Part 91: General Aviation
- Phase of flightThe stage of the flight when things started to go wrong: standing, taxi, takeoff, initial climb, en route, maneuvering, approach or landing. Glossary
- Maneuvering
- First occurrenceThe single coded event the NTSB judges best describes what happened (records from 2008 on). Older records name the first occurrence in the sequence instead. Glossary
- Loss of control in flight
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Substantial
Cause areas
- Airframe › Flutter
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot was performing Phase I flight testing of the homebuilt aircraft and investigating the upper flight envelope. While descending through 4,000 feet msl at a speed of 115-118 mph, the aircraft began to flutter. He reduced engine power and raised the nose at which time he heard a loud 'pop' noise. The aircraft went out of control, rolling to an inverted position. The pilot activated the aircraft's ballistic recovery parachute and the aircraft and pilot landed in an orange grove. Postcrash examination showed 2 fuselage longerons had fractured. The manufacturer had determined the never exceed speed (Vne) for the aircraft to be 120 mph.
Probable cause
The aircraft structure fluttering inflight resulting in fracture of fuselage longerons and the pilot being unable to maintain control.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record MIA99LA119
- Event ID
- 20001205X00525
- Case number
- MIA99LA119
- Dataset
- historical-pre2008
- Source SHA-256
- 89e2df6d848e7ab3b42e7d7c7a03ff403303057a26ca04c95b3ea67201c3ce74
Source notes (4)
- Unreviewed is an editorial label, not an investigation status. API-sourced is not report-checked or human-reviewed. Explicit event totals are used without summing aircraft injury tables; onboard allocation is withheld. Unknown values remain unknown. The operation category is mapped from the NTSB-reported FAR part and has not been reviewed.
- Filled from the NTSB case API where the bulk record had no value: investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date, which is the same as the UTC date the NTSB stores.
- API snapshot SHA-256: a65bb7054bbfaa526240005a9b67bf93d34821ffdb8d255312b65a1a241752e3; retrieved 2026-09-22T15:31:33.531Z.