LAX95LA300 · Gettig PITTS SPECIAL S1C PITTS SPEC
Gettig PITTS SPECIAL S1C PITTS SPEC · Accident: total loss of engine power (mechanical failure) while maneuvering
From Phoenix Goodyear Airport (GYR) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX95LA300
- 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
Gettig PITTS SPECIAL S1C PITTS SPEC
- Aircraft type
- Gettig PITTS SPECIAL S1C
- 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
- N7RG
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Phoenix Goodyear Airport (GYR)To 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
- Total loss of engine power (mechanical failure)
- 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
- Fuel injection control, push/pull rod › Fractured
- Owner/builder › Maintenance, installation, improper
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PILOT WAS PRACTICING AEROBATICS WHEN THE ENGINE SUSTAINED A TOTAL LOSS OF POWER. THE SURROUNDING TERRAIN WAS BUSH AND BRUSH COVERED AND THE PILOT ELECTED TO LAND ON A ROAD. THE PILOT SUCCESSFULLY LANDED ON THE ROAD BUT COLLIDED WITH A ROAD SIGN WHEN THE ROAD CURVED. EXAMINATION OF THE ENGINE DISCLOSED THAT THE PILOT INSTALLED ELECTRONIC FUEL INJECTION DRIVE SHAFT FRACTURED. THE DRIVE SHAFT WAS FOUND MISALIGNED IN THE ENGINE ACCESSORY CASE.
Probable cause
The owner/builder's improper installation of the fuel injection system unit by misaligning the drive shaft that resulted in the fracture of the shaft. The road sign was a factor in this accident.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX95LA300
- Event ID
- 20001207X04297
- Case number
- LAX95LA300
- 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: 386d1b87b0962810391c7284b622aad2b02867f27467987eba613a685771301b; retrieved 2026-09-22T23:23:23.570Z.