NYC99LA237 · Pratt DOMINATOR
Pratt DOMINATOR · Accident: in flight collision with terrain/water while maneuvering
From Auburn Lewiston Municipal Airport (LEW) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- NYC99LA237
- 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
Pratt DOMINATOR
- Aircraft type
- Pratt DOMINATOR
- Category
- Gyroplane
- 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
- N4449N
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Auburn Lewiston Municipal Airport (LEW)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
- 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
- Substantial
Cause areas
- Pilot in command › In-flight planning/decision, improper
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Auburn, ME, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
The pilot was practicing a 180 degree turn with 0 airspeed to a downwind condition at 100 feet agl in his homebuilt gyroplane. He had successfully completed the maneuver once, and was attempting it for a second time. During the second attempt, the pilot slowed the gyroplane until reaching approximately 0 airspeed, then applied pedal to execute the turn. The gyroplane entered a rapid descent. The pilot advanced the throttle, and lowered the nose of the gyroplane to gain airspeed. Recognizing the impending impact, the pilot leveled the rotor's tip-path-plane, and the gyroplane impacted the ground level with forward airspeed. The landing gear collapsed, and the rotor contacted the ground on both sides. In addition, the rotor contacted the engine driven propeller, shearing off all three blades. The gyroplane bounced back into the air, and then impacted the ground for a second time. During the second impact, the gyroplane was level, but rolled right after ground contact, and slid 20 to 30 feet on its side before coming to a stop. According to the kit manufacturer, at 0 airspeed the gyroplane would descend at 1,000 to 1,500 feet per minute.
Probable cause
The pilot's improper decision to execute a 0 airspeed pedal turn at 100 feet agl.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record NYC99LA237
- Event ID
- 20001212X19869
- Case number
- NYC99LA237
- 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: 15bd0582aa8c1d3fb87a59ce0ff5e5698b6c8754e6dbb8bb25c440106983cb36; retrieved 2026-09-22T14:00:38.789Z.