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MIA00LA259 · Eugene L. Capozzi VAN RV-6A

3 Sept 2000 · Bayou La Batre, AL, United States

Eugene L. Capozzi VAN RV-6A · Accident: loss of control in flight on approach

From Roy E. Ray Airport (5R7) to an unrecorded destination

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Event

NTSB case
MIA00LA259
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

Eugene L. Capozzi VAN RV-6A

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
N199EC
Operator
Unknown
Onboard fatalities
Unknown
Route
From Roy E. Ray Airport (5R7)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
Approach · VFR pattern final
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
Loss of control in flight
Also codedOther events the NTSB coded in the sequence, such as a wire strike after a loss of power. Flight Findings uses them for its kinds of event. Glossary
Stall
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 › Airspeed(vs), not maintained

Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.

NTSB narrative

The pilot stated that while on final approach to runway 36, he extended full wing flaps and maintained about 80 mph until clear of the trees at the end of the runway. He then reduced engine power and descended toward the runway. At about 30 feet above the runway, the left wing dropped down between 20-30 degrees, and he applied right aileron control and engine power in an attempt to correct the left roll. The engine did not seem to respond and the aircraft remained in the left roll. The aircraft descended nose down, approximately 15-20 degrees left wing down, and collided with the runway. A witness told the pilot he heard the engine increase in power prior to ground impact. Propeller strike marks on the runway showed that the distance between the first and second marks was 10 inches. Analysis shows that at 2,700 rpm, full engine power, the aircraft would be at about 51 mph at ground impact. The pilot stated the aircraft stalls at 52 mph with full flaps extended.

Probable cause

The pilots failure to maintain airspeed during final approach result in the aircraft stalling and descending uncontrolled until ground impact.

Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset

Sources

NTSB record MIA00LA259
Event ID
20001212X22034
Case number
MIA00LA259
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: 5a2fc612ceec61a0e4c27f7f20b95b46fee84ab2a0b21e05b919e75588eaa922; retrieved 2026-09-22T12:29:26.590Z.