LAX90FA135 · Gardner PITTS S-1
Gardner PITTS S-1 · Accident: in flight collision with terrain/water while maneuvering
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX90FA135
- 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
Gardner PITTS S-1
- Aircraft type
- Gardner PITTS S-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
- N104KF
- Operator
- Ferguson, Kenneth M. · 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
- 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 › Remedial action, delayed
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Eloy, AZ, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
THE PLT WAS PRACTICING AEROBATICS FOR AN UPCOMING AIRSHOW. HE LANDED AT ELOY ARPT AFTER HE HAD COMPLETED ONE ACROBATIC SEQUENCE. THE AIRSHOW'S NARRATOR, AN EMINENTLY QUALIFIED ACROBATIC PERFORMER, TOLD THE PILOT THAT HIS RECOVERY FROM THE FINAL INVERTED FLAT SPIN MANEUVER BEGAN AT TOO LOW AN ALTITUDE. THE PLT TOLD THE NARRATOR THAT HE INTENDED TO USE AN OIL FILLED SMOKE SOLUTION DURING THE RECOVERY FROM THE FLAT SPIN MANEUVER. THE NARRATOR CAUTIONED THE PLT AGAINST USING SMOKE DURING THE MANEUVER, BUT THE PLT STATED THAT IT ENHANCED THE MANEUVER FROM A SPACTATOR POINT OF VIEW. THE PLT DEPARTED ELOY AND BEGAN ANOTHER ACROBATIC SEQUENCE. THE PLT ENTERED THE FINAL MANEUVER, AN INVERTED FLAT SPIN WITH THE SMOKE ON. THIS TIME HOWEVER HE BEGAN THE RECOVERY AT 500 FT, ABT 300 FT LOWER THAN HIS PREVIOUS RECOVERY. THE AIRPLANE ROLLED OUT TO THE RT-SIDE-UP POSITION, BUT THE AIRSPEED WAS INSUFFICIENT TO ARREST THE RAPID VERTICAL SPEED DESCENT. THE WRECKAGE EXAM DSCLSD NO EVIDENCE OF ANY AIRPLANE/ENG. MALFUNCTION OR FAILURE.
Probable cause
THE PILOT DELAYED THE RECOVERY FROM THE INVERTED FLAT SPIN MANEUVER AND MISJUDGED HIS ALTITUDE.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX90FA135
- Event ID
- 20001212X22935
- Case number
- LAX90FA135
- 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 1990-04-04.
- API snapshot SHA-256: a4a36941b07361d7bc1bf17c21d7c9643a903ff02b651746da904266dce02eb6; retrieved 2026-09-21T02:49:55.417Z.