IAD96LA116 · Quicksilver SPRINT
Quicksilver SPRINT · Accident: airframe, component or system failure while maneuvering
From Frederick, MD to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- IAD96LA116
- 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
Quicksilver SPRINT
- Aircraft type
- Quicksilver SPRINT
- Category
- Ultralight
- 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
- UNREG
- Operator
- John F Harrison · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Frederick, MDTo 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
- Pilot in command › Design stress limits of aircraft, exceeded
- Pilot in command › Planning/decision, improper
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
Several witnesses saw the non-certificated pilot performing several aerobatic maneuvers. One witness reported that the pilot completed a full loop at approximately 1500 feet agl; during a second loop, the wing collapsed, and the airplane fell to the ground. The airplane was equipped with a ballistic recovery system (BRS) (an aircraft mounted parachute). A second witness stated that he saw a parachute deploy about 500 feet agl, but the parachute became entangled in the propeller. Postaccident investigation by the FAA revealed that the ultralight type aircraft had a supplemental fuel tank installed; therefore, the ultralight was considered an airplane. Toxicology tests showed the pilot's blood and urine were positive for Phenytoin (11.100 mcg/ml blood, 6.900 mcg/ml urine). Phenytoin is a prescription anti-seizure medication.
Probable cause
The pilot's improper planning/decision and exceeding the design stress limits of the aircraft, which resulted in overload failure of the wing and subsequent uncontrolled collision with the terrain. Factors related to the accident were: the pilot's failure to follow procedures and directives, his attempt to perform aerobatic maneuvers with a non-certificated aircraft, and subsequent entanglement of the parachute in the propeller during its deployment.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record IAD96LA116
- Event ID
- 20001208X06261
- Case number
- IAD96LA116
- 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: 22a9ded4b236e65b80eae70990c738c3cf701bb43e524aee9b028c05c89b30ea; retrieved 2026-09-20T23:16:49.134Z.