SEA92LA074 · Moore SONERAI 1
Moore SONERAI 1 · Accident: in flight collision with terrain/water
Event
- NTSB case
- SEA92LA074
- 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
Moore SONERAI 1
- Aircraft type
- Moore SONERAI 1
- 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
- N27127
- Operator
- Moore, Craig D. · private individual
- 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
- Other
- 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
- In flight collision with terrain/water
- 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 › Altitude, inadequate
- Pilot in command › Impairment(alcohol)
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
SEVERAL WITNESSES REPORTED THAT THE PILOT/OWNER HAD PERFORMED ACROBATIC MANEUVERS IN HIS HOMEBUILT AIRPLANE, INCLUDING ROLLS, AND HAD RECENTLY STARTED PERFORMING LOOPS. THERE WERE NO WITNESSES TO THE ACCIDENT, BUT ON-SCENE EVIDENCE INDICATES THAT THE AIRPLANE HAD IMPACTED THE GROUND IN A STEEP NOSE-DOWN ATTITUDE. THE VOLKSWAGEN ENGINE EQUIPPED AIRPLANE HAD A GRAVITY FED FUEL SYSTEM WHICH WOULD NOT PROVIDE A CONSTANT SUPPLY OF FUEL TO THE ENGINE WHEN THE AIRPLANE WAS INVERTED DURING ACROBATIC MANEUVERS. EVIDENCE INDICATES THE PROPELLER WAS NOT TURNING AT IMPACT. THE AIRPLANE, AS CERTIFICATED, WAS PROHIBITED FROM ACROBATIC FLIGHT. THE PILOT WAS ISSUED A STUDENT PILOT CERTIFICATE IN 1983. A PERSON WHO LIVED WITH THE PILOT FOR 3 YRS HAD RECENTLY MOVED FROM HIS HOUSE DUE TO WHAT WAS DESCRIBED AS THE PILOT'S EXCESSIVE CONSUMPTION OF ALCOHOL AND USE OF MARIJUANA. THE TOXICOLOGICAL REPORT ON THE PILOT SHOWED A BLOOD ALCOHOL LEVEL OF 0.105%, AND A 0.002 UG/ML LEVEL OF CARBOXYLIC ACID (MARIJUANA) WAS ALSO DETECTED IN HIS BLOOD.
Probable cause
THE PILOT'S FAILURE TO MAINTAIN AN ALTITUDE SUFFICIENT TO AVOID COLLIDING WITH TERRAIN WHILE PERFORMING ACROBATIC MANEUVERS AS A RESULT OF HIS ALCOHOLIC IMPAIRMENT OF EFFICIENCY AND JUDGEMENT. FACTORS CONTRIBUTING TO THE ACCIDENT WERE: THE PILOTS DISREGARD OF THE AIRPLANE'S OPERATING LIMITATIONS WHICH PROHIBITED ACROBATIC FLIGHT, AND HIS LACK OF EXPERIENCE AND TRAINING FOR THE TYPE OF OPERATION BEING CONDUCTED.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record SEA92LA074
- Event ID
- 20001211X14525
- Case number
- SEA92LA074
- 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: local date, investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 1992-04-11.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 24eddb63ad936b0b6ed0c26559deb10ba4887d9e22c519d91d229d23122a3fea; retrieved 2026-09-21T01:16:16.662Z.