SEA96LA113 · Ayres S2R
Ayres S2R · Accident: loss of control in flight en route
From Aberdeen Municipal Airport (U36) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- SEA96LA113
- 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
Ayres S2R
- Aircraft type
- Ayres S2
- 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
- N5686X
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Aberdeen Municipal Airport (U36), Aberdeen, IDTo 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
- En route · cruise
- 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
- Pilot in command › Incapacitation
- Pilot in command › Planning/decision, improper
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The simulated aerial application flight occurred about 0800 on the morning after the pilot made a 3-day, 22-1/2 hr drive; he had slept an average of less than 5-1/2 hours each night for the 3 previous nights, awakening at 0445 that morning. He reported '...my hydration...may have been low.' He had flown only 1 to 2 hrs during the previous 90 days, with no recent performance of abrupt or high-G maneuvers. He stated he was 'wound up with anticipation' before starting work (in his new job). He reported that after 10 to 12 touch-and-go landings, using steep pattern turns, followed by 15 to 20 practice swaths of a field, he experienced symptoms resembling those of motion sickness. He said he discontinued steep maneuvers, opened the air vents, and unzipped his Nomex flight suit. then he began feeling better. He then decided to resume swathing (contrary to published FAA advice regarding motion sickness encounters), but immediately after doing so, he experienced even more intense symptoms. He attempted to return to the airport, but en route, he started feeling clammy, sweaty, and light-headed; the next thing he remembered was 'waking up' in the aircraft after it crashed. A neurologist who evaluated the pilot reported he thought the pilot had a 'vasovagal response', which medical references describe as fainting in response to pain, shock, stress, or fear.
Probable cause
pilot's improper planning/decision, and subsequent incapacitation, which resulted in a loss of aircraft control and collision with the terrain. Factors relating to the accident were: pilot fatigued from a long-distance drive with minimal rest, physical impairment of the pilot due to low hydration, his lack of recent experience in abrupt/high-G maneuvering, pilot anxiety/apprehension, the resultant motion sickness of the pilot, and his improper decision to continue flight after experiencing a physiological disturbance, all of which led to vasovagal syncope.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record SEA96LA113
- Event ID
- 20001208X06109
- Case number
- SEA96LA113
- 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: ed9576a68337d9fc9d280e672e3116f7b3e0b117f5f7b919f763d0f841046938; retrieved 2026-09-21T12:42:58.808Z.