NYC98FA117 · Morelli RANS S9
Morelli RANS S9 · Accident: loss of control in flight while maneuvering
From Tangalooma Airport (TAN) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- NYC98FA117
- 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
Morelli RANS S9
- Aircraft type
- Morelli RANS S9
- 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
- N1189Z
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Tangalooma Airport (TAN)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
- Loss of control in flight
- 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/spin
- 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 › Aircraft control, not maintained
- Pilot in command › Procedures/directives, not followed
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Taunton, MA, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
The pilot had been making adjustments to the carburetors on the 2 cycle, non-certificated engine. He was flying the homebuilt airplane without the engine cowling or canopy in place. While circling near the airport, the airplane was observed to enter a spin and it disappeared from view in a near vertical nose down attitude. No evidence of a mechanical failure or malfunction was found with the airplane or engine. The Chief Engineer for the kit manufacturer reported, '...The flying qualities would have been altered due to the large increase in drag and disruption of the airflow over the fuselage and tail surfaces. The aircraft stall and spin characteristics could have been dramatically changed from previously tested configurations. The assembly manual and flight operations manuals clearly indicate that the cowl and canopy should be in place before flying the aircraft and that operation of the aircraft in any other configuration is not approved.'
Probable cause
The pilot's operation of the aircraft in an unapproved configuration contrary to procedures resulting in diminished aircraft control, and his failure to maintain control of the aircraft resulting in a stall/spin event. Contributing factors were the non-installation of the canopy and engine cowling during flight.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record NYC98FA117
- Event ID
- 20001211X10173
- Case number
- NYC98FA117
- 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: 20fc41391e51386c922129a1071b855dd65d24bad2af2720a0ab5585ed630a7a; retrieved 2026-09-20T22:34:23.873Z.