FTW90FA120 · Sukhoi SU-26MX
Sukhoi SU-26MX · Accident: in flight collision with terrain/water while maneuvering
From OKC Will Rogers World Airport (OKC) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW90FA120
- 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
Sukhoi SU-26MX
- Aircraft type
- Sukhoi SU-26
- 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
- N26TJ
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From OKC Will Rogers World Airport (OKC)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 · turn to reverse direction
- 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
- 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/spin
- 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 › Stall/spin, not corrected
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PLT OF THE RUSSIAN BUILT ACFT WAS PARTICIPATING IN AN AEROBATIC SHOW, OF WHICH, HE WAS THE DIRECTOR. HE HAD RPRTD HE WAS FATIGUED, THAT HE HAD BEEN UNDER CONSIDERABLE PRESSURE & THAT HE MIGHT HAVE TO STOP FLYING IN THE AIRSHOW. DRG THE AIRSHOW, A VERTICAL TORQUE ROLL & TAIL SLIDE WERE PERFORMED. ANOTHER TORQUE ROLL & TAIL SLID WERE THEN MADE THAT RESULTED IN AN INVERTED RECOVERY. FINALLY, ANOTHER TORQUE ROLL & TAIL SLIDE WERE PERFORMED THAT EVOLVED IN A 1-1/2 TURN SPIN. SUBSEQUENTLY, THE ACFT INPACTED THE GND IN ABOUT A 65 DEG DSCNT. NO PREIMPACT PART FAILURE OR MALFUNCTION WAS FND THAT WOULD HAVE RESULTED IN THE ACDNT. THE PLT HAD ENGAGED THE SMOKE GENERATOR FOR THE LAST MNVR & SMOKE ENGULFED THE ACFT AS THE TAIL SLIDE BGN. THERE WAS EVIDENCE THE PLT WAS OPERG THE ELEVATOR CTL TO RECOVER BEFORE IMPACT. HE HAD BEEN TAKING A BETA BLOCKER (PROPRANOLOL), WHICH HAD BEEN PRESCRIBED WITH THE WARNING OF NOT TO USE BEFORE FLT. A BLOOD TEST SHOWED 0.15 MCG/ML OF PROPRANOLOL, BUT NO PHYSICAL IMPAIRMENT WAS VERIFIED. DENSITY ALT WAS ABOUT 3800 FT.
Probable cause
FAILURE OF THE PILOT TO RECOVER FROM THE AEROBATIC MANEUVER AND SUBSEQUENT STALL/SPIN, DUE TO INADEQUATE ALTITUDE. FATIGUE MAY HAVE BEEN A RELATED FACTOR.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW90FA120
- Event ID
- 20001212X23417
- Case number
- FTW90FA120
- 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: 17f518641964092e38e3e00126533c0ddfc68f524d5f71350595ebaecfc5f954; retrieved 2026-09-21T02:33:41.151Z.