FTW96FA151 · Sukhoi SU-29
Sukhoi SU-29 · Accident: airframe, component or system failure while maneuvering
From Lakefront Airport (NEW) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW96FA151
- 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
Sukhoi SU-29
- Aircraft type
- Sukhoi SU-29
- 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
- N729SU
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Lakefront Airport (NEW)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
- Airframe, component or system failure
- 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
- Flt control syst, elevator control cable/rod › Disconnected
- Miscellaneous, bolt/nut/fastener/clamp/spring › Loss, total
- Unknown › Maintenance, installation, improper
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of New Orleans, LA, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
Radar data indicated the airplane was maneuvering in a manner consistent with the performance of aerobatics prior to entering an uncontrolled descent during which it reached a speed of over 220 knots. Evidence indicated that, prior to impact, the pilot jettisoned the canopy, released his restraining harness, and deployed his emergency parachute. All of the suspension lines attaching the parachute canopy to the harness separated. The manufacturer recommended that the parachute not be deployed at speeds greater than 140 knots; however, this limit was not marked, nor was it required to be marked, on the parachute. Examination of the airplane's elevator control system revealed evidence that a bolt attaching a control tube to a bellcrank migrated out during the flight. The bolt should have been secured with a castellated nut and a cotter pin. The control tube end, bolt, castellated nut, and cotter pin were not recovered from the accident site. It could not be determined whether the bolt was improperly installed when the airplane was manufactured or had subsequently been removed and reinstalled incorrectly.
Probable cause
The in-flight loss of a bolt in the elevator control system due to improper installation by unknown person(s), which resulted in a disconnection of the elevator control system that rendered the airplane uncontrollable.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW96FA151
- Event ID
- 20001208X05392
- Case number
- FTW96FA151
- 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: f763e836831bfe645d5a9fa8b45db755249f58f0b6d2fca9897e706032d04696; retrieved 2026-09-20T23:24:21.893Z.