MIA91LA125 · Rutan Aircraft Factory VARI EZE
Rutan Aircraft Factory VARI EZE · Accident: in flight collision with terrain/water while maneuvering
From PFN to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- MIA91LA125
- 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
Rutan Aircraft Factory VARI EZE
- Aircraft type
- Rutan Aircraft Factory VARI EZE
- 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
- N32F
- Operator
- Walter C. Sherman · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From PFNTo 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
- 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, misjudged
- Pilot in command › Judgment, poor
- Pilot in command › Ostentatious display
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PLT DEPARTED ON A VFR FLIGHT IN VFR CONDITIONS. NO FLIGHT PLAN WAS FILED. THE PLT WAS OBSERVED BY WITNESSES PRIOR TO THE ACCIDENT BUZZING HOUSES, TREETOPS, AND FLYING LOW ABOVE THE OCEAN. AT THE TIME OF THE ACCIDENT THE AIRPLANE WAS OBSERVED TRAVELING NORTHBOUND TOWARD THE SHORELINE AT 50 TO 60 FEET AGL. THE AIRPLANE WAS OBSERVED TO MAKE A VERTICAL CLIMB, AND THEN THE NOSE TILTED TOWARDS THE WEST IN A DESCENT, AND THE AIRPLANE WAS HEADING EASTBOUND WHEN IT COLLIDED WITH THE OCEAN. THE AIRPLANE WAS DESTROYED. THE COMMERCIAL PLT WAS KILLED. EXAMINATION OF THE AIRPLANE STRUCTURE, PROPELLER, FLIGHT CONTROLS, ENGINE AND ACCESSORIES REVEALED NO EVIDENCE TO INDICATE PRECRASH MECHANICAL FAILURE OR MALFUNCTION.
Probable cause
THE PILOT-IN-COMMAND MISJUDGED HIS ALTITUDE WHILE CONDUCTING AN AEROBATIC MANEUVER, RESULTING IN AN IN FLIGHT COLLISION WITH WATER.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record MIA91LA125
- Event ID
- 20001212X16841
- Case number
- MIA91LA125
- 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: 05bd3d1c92f68bd027668c83e7f87f60870331549553eac60737d0991ac1b059; retrieved 2026-09-21T01:50:58.385Z.