MIA93LA130 · Smith FW2C80TD
Smith FW2C80TD · Accident: airframe, component or system failure while maneuvering
Event
- NTSB case
- MIA93LA130
- 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
- 2 · 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
Smith FW2C80TD
- Aircraft type
- Smith FW2
- 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
- N912WB
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo 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 › Ostentatious display
- Wing › Separation
- Wing, wing attachment fitting › Overload
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE ACFT HAD AN FAA REG NUMBER ASSIGNED AND DISPLAYED ON THE ACFT. THE ACFT DID NOT HAVE AN FAA AIRWORTHINESS INSPECTION OR CERTIFICATE AS REQUIRED BY FAA REGULATIONS. THE STUDENT PILOT DEPARTED WITH A PASSENGER AND AFTER 30 MIN WAS OBSERVED TO MAKE A HIGH SPEED LOW PASS DOWN THE DEPARTURE RUNWAY. THE FLT THEN PULLED UP INTO A NEAR VERTICAL CLIMB, AT WHICH TIME AN EXPLOSION OR BACKFIRE WAS HEARD AND A PUFF OF SMOKE APPEARED. THE AIRCRAFT THEN DID A WING OVER MANUEVER AND WAS RETURNING TO LEVEL FLIGHT WHEN THE WINGS SEPARATED. POSTCRASH EXAMINATION OF THE WING ATTACH POINTS INDICATED ALL FAILURES WERE INDICATIVE OF OVERSTRESS AND ALL FITTINGS HAD DISTORTION DAMAGE. THE ACFT MFG STATED THE DAMAGE TO THE WINGS WAS SIMILAR TO DAMAGE OF WINGS THAT WERE FAILED AT ULTIMATE LOADING OF 6.6 POS G'S IN STATIC TESTING. THE ACFT IS RESTRICTED TO 4.4 POS G'S. AFTER THE ACCIDENT THE FAA REG NUMBER WAS CUT FROM THE ACFT BEFORE TO THE SHERIFF'S DEPT ARRIVAL. THE PLT'S FATHER TOLD FAA INSPECTORS THE ACFT WAS AN ULTRALIGHT, DID NOT HAVE FAA REG, AND WAS UNDER THE U S ULTRALIGHT ASSOCIATION EXEMPTION. THE ACFT DID NOT MEET ULTRALIGHT ASSOCIATION EXEMPTION REQUIREMENTS.
Probable cause
THE PILOT IN COMMAND'S OPERATION OF THE AIRCRAFT IN A MANNER WHICH EXCEEDED DESIGN LIMITATIONS WHICH RESULTED IN INFLIGHT FAILURE AND SEPARATION OF THE WINGS.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record MIA93LA130
- Event ID
- 20001211X12205
- Case number
- MIA93LA130
- 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: a15c2dfbc1781f9d098364f75737b033660fbbbd162512dcae842cb7d82b60ee; retrieved 2026-09-21T00:36:00.062Z.