BFO94LA141 · Lafrance V-Witt W2
Lafrance V-Witt W2 · Accident: loss of engine power while maneuvering
From Wilmington Airpark (ILN) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- BFO94LA141
- 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
- 1 · 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
Lafrance V-Witt W2
- Aircraft type
- Lafrance V Witt W2
- 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
- N63VW
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Wilmington Airpark (ILN), OHTo 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 engine power
- Also codedOther events the NTSB coded in the sequence, such as a wire strike after a loss of power. Flight Findings uses them for its kinds of event. Glossary
- Stall
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Destroyed
Cause areas
- Pilot in command › Airspeed, not maintained
- Pilot in command › Stall, inadvertent
- Reason for occurrence undetermined
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
ACCORDING TO AN FAA AVIATION SAFETY INSPECTOR, THE PILOT WAS PERFORMING IN AN AIRSHOW. HE STATED THAT, ALTHOUGH THE PILOT HAD SOME DIFFICULTY STARTING THE ENGINE, HE COMPLETED HIS PREFLIGHT INSPECTION AND ENGINE RUN-UP SUCCESSFULLY. DURING THE PILOT'S AIRSHOW ROUTINE, HE WAS MANEUVERING AT LOW ALTITUDE AROUND PYLONS THAT WERE POSITIONED ADJACENT TO RUNWAY 4/22. SOME WITNESSES REPORTED THE ENGINE LOST POWER (AS THE AIRPLANE WAS PROCEEDING ALONG THE RIGHT SIDE OF RUNWAY 4). THE ENGINE SOUND WAS DESCRIBED AS 'SPUTTERING.' THE AIRPLANE ENTERED A CLIMB AND MANEUVERED TO THE RIGHT & BACK LEFT (AS IF THE PILOT WAS ATTEMPTING TO MANEUVER FOR LANDING ON RUNWAY 22). THE AIRPLANE THEN DESCENDED IN A NOSE DOWN ATTITUDE AND IMPACTED THE GROUND. POSTACCIDENT EXAMINATION REVEALED THE FUEL SELECTOR VALVE WAS IN THE 'OFF' POSITION. AN EXAMINATION OF THE AIRPLANE DID NOT REVEAL EVIDENCE OF MECHANICAL MALFUNCTION.
Probable cause
LOSS OF ENGINE POWER FOR AN UNDETERMINED REASON, AND FAILURE OF THE PILOT TO MAINTAIN ADEQUATE AIRSPEED WHILE ATTEMPTING A MANEUVER FOR AN EMERGENCY LANDING, WHICH RESULTED IN A STALL AND COLLISION WITH TERRAIN. A FACTOR RELATED TO THE ACCIDENT WAS: THE LACK OF ALTITUDE FOR REMEDIAL ACTION (AFTER LOSS OF ENGINE POWER).
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record BFO94LA141
- Event ID
- 20001206X01965
- Case number
- BFO94LA141
- 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: c3cd71a453d051756498d233bd1ec3cf0cc6d1d1cbb3fd181ca47b5540c81d97; retrieved 2026-09-21T00:02:09.062Z.