BFO93LA045 · Pitts S-2B
Lynn Associates Pitts S-2B · Accident: loss of control in flight while maneuvering
From Lee Airport (ANP) to Easton Airport / Newnam Field (ESN)
Event
- NTSB case
- BFO93LA045
- 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
Pitts S-2B
- Aircraft type
- Pitts S-2
- 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
- N12QW
- Operator
- Lynn Associates
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Lee Airport (ANP), LEE AIRPORT, MDTo Easton Airport / Newnam Field (ESN), Easton, MD
- 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 › Airspeed, not maintained
- Pilot in command › Stall/spin, inadvertent
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PILOT STATED THAT WHILE PRACTICING AEROBATICS, AT AN ALTITUDE OF APPROXIMATELY 3500 FEET, HE WAS JUST FINISHING AN IMMELMAN, WHEN THE AIRPLANE INADVERTENTLY WENT INTO A FLAT SPIN. HE STATED HE TRIED TO RECOVER, BUT WAS UNABLE TO DO SO. THE LAST THING HE REMEMBERED WAS LOOKING DOWN AT THE TERRAIN FROM ABOUT 800 FEET. WITNESSES STATED THAT THEY SAW AND HEARD THE AIRPLANE WHILE IT WAS BEING MANEUVERED, THEN SUDDENLY, THERE WAS SILENCE. THEY LOOKED UP FOR THE AIRPLANE AND SAW IT DESCENDING THROUGH ABOUT 1000 FEET ABOVE THE GROUND. THEY STATED THE AIRPLANE'S NOSE ROSE ABOUT 30 DEGREES ABOVE THE GROUND; HOWEVER, THEY LOST SIGHT OF THE AIRPLANE AT TREE TOP LEVEL. AN ON SCENE INVESTIGATION REVEALED THE AIRPLANE IMPACTED THE GROUND IN A FLAT ATTITUDE. NO MECHANICAL ANOMALIES WERE FOUND WITH EITHER THE ENGINE OR AIRFRAME.
Probable cause
FAILURE OF THE PILOT TO MAINTAIN AIRSPEED, WHILE PERFORMING AEROBATIC MANEUVERS, WHICH RESULTED IN AN INADVERTENT FLAT SPIN AND AN UNCONTROLLED DESCENT INTO TERRAIN.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record BFO93LA045
- Event ID
- 20001211X11921
- Case number
- BFO93LA045
- 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: afff9abfdfa1854c173643d710fa8b06a9fb1a09ffb7d310ea09f6e291acbc93; retrieved 2026-09-21T14:31:56.896Z.