MIA93LA088 · Christen Industries PITTS S1-T
Christen Industries PITTS S1-T · Accident: partial loss of engine power (non-mechanical) during initial climb
From Naples Municipal Airport (APF) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- MIA93LA088
- 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
Christen Industries PITTS S1-T
- Aircraft type
- Christen PITTS S1-T
- 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
- N218MC
- Operator
- Cutshaw, Michael H. · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Naples Municipal Airport (APF)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
- Initial climb
- 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
- Partial loss of engine power (non-mechanical)
- 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
- Induction air control, air filter/screen › Inadequate
- Induction air ducting › Inadequate
- Manufacturer › Acft/equip, inadequate design
- Pilot in command › Airspeed, not maintained
- Pilot in command › Flare, improper
- Unqualified person › Maintenance, installation, improper
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Naples, FL, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
THE PILOT, WHO DOES NOT HOLD AN AIRFRAME OR POWERPLANT MECHANIC'S LICENSE STATED HE INSTALLED A STRAIGHT AIR INTAKE TUBE ON HIS AIRCRAFT. THIS TUBE DID NOT HAVE ANY MEANS FOR ALTERNATE AIR OR FILTERING OF INCOMING AIR. HE FURTHER MODIFIED THE TUBE BY INSTALLING A SCREEN AND A PIECE OF AIR FILTERING MATERIAL IN THE TUBE. DURING THE FIRST TAKEOFF AFTER THE MODIFICATION THE AIRCRAFT CLIMBED TO 200 FEET, AT WHICH TIME THE MANIFOLD PRESSURE DROPPED AND THE ENGINE LOST POWER. HE WAS UNABLE TO MAINTAIN ALTITUDE AND THE AIRCRAFT TOUCHED DOWN HARD ON THE RUNWAY AND NOSED OVER INVERTED. POSTCRASH EXAMINATION AND TESTING OF THE INTAKE TUBE WAS PERFORMED BY AN FAA INSPECTOR. WHEN A VACUUM CLEANER WAS ATTACHED TO THE ENGINE SIDE OF THE INTAKE TUBE AND TURNED ON THE AIR FLOW THROUGH THE TUBE WAS NORMAL FOR SEVERAL MINUTES. AFTER THIS, MOISTURE BUILT UP ON THE AIR FILTERING MATERIAL AND THE FILTER COLLAPSED. THE VACUUM CLEANER THEN BEGAN TO STRAIN DUE TO LACK OF AIR FLOW.
Probable cause
THE INSTALLATION OF AN IMPROPER DESIGNED INTAKE TUBE AND AIR FILTER BY THE NONMECHANIC RATED PILOT-IN-COMMAND, WHICH RESULTED IN MOISTURE BUILD UP AND COLLAPSE OF THE AIR FILTER, WHICH RESULTED IN BLOCKAGE OF AIR FLOW TO THE ENGINE AND LOSS OF ENGINE POWER. CONTRIBUTING TO THE ACCIDENT WAS THE FAILURE OF THE PILOT-IN-COMMAND TO MAINTAIN AIRSPEED AND FLARE PROPERLY DURING A FORCED LANDING.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record MIA93LA088
- Event ID
- 20001211X12027
- Case number
- MIA93LA088
- 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: 57fd0abd09e31486e7da7df85b1e4036b81c3265cc11beeead327e4ab1235cfa; retrieved 2026-09-21T23:00:47.369Z.