BFO93LA032 · Morgan CHALLENGER II CHALLENGER
Morgan CHALLENGER II CHALLENGER · Accident: loss of control in flight on approach
From W96 to W96
Event
- NTSB case
- BFO93LA032
- 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
Morgan CHALLENGER II CHALLENGER
- Aircraft type
- Morgan CHALLENGER
- 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
- UNREG
- Operator
- Jerry Wayne Morgan
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From W96To W96
- 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
- Approach · VFR pattern final
- 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
- Destroyed
Cause areas
- Pilot in command › Aircraft control, not maintained
- Pilot in command › Impairment(drugs)
- Pilot in command › Physical impairment(organic problem)
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE UNREGISTERED HOMEBUILT WAS OBSERVED TO TAKE OFF, REMAIN IN THE PATTERN, LAND BACK ON THE RUNWAY, THEN TAKE OFF AGAIN. AS IT TURNED ONTO THE FINAL APPROACH LEG, IT SUDDENLY NOSED DOWN AND STRUCK THE GROUND ABOUT 1/2 MI FROM THE RUNWAY. NO MECHANICAL MALFUNCTIONS WERE FOUND WITH THE ENGINE OR AIRFRAME. THE WINDS WERE REPORTED AS 18 KTS GUSTING TO 22. THE PILOT'S CERTIFICATES WERE PREVIOUSLY REVOKED BECAUSE OF 'SUSTAINED PERMANENT NEUROLOGICAL INJURY' FROM A PREVIOUS HOMEBUILT ACCIDENT. TOXICOLOGY TESTS OF THE PILOT'S LIVER TISSUE REVEALED 1.7 MG/KG OF IMIPRAMINE, 6.0 MG/KG OF DESIPRAMINE, AND O.2 MG/KG OF LIDOCAINE (PRESCRIPTION DRUGS).
Probable cause
THE PILOT'S IMPAIRMENT DUE TO A NEUROLOGICAL INJURY AND DRUGS, AND HIS FAILURE TO MAINTAIN CONTROL OF THE AIRPLANE DURING AN APPROACH TO LAND. A FACTOR RELATED TO THE ACCIDENT WAS THE GUSTY WIND CONDITION.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record BFO93LA032
- Event ID
- 20001211X11791
- Case number
- BFO93LA032
- 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: 7ed95117b5a3909bbb5e922f183994b48f8e6394867e589aec136ec9c7ae0057; retrieved 2026-09-21T00:41:51.409Z.