MIA88LA203 · Hunter VELOCITY
Hunter VELOCITY · Accident: loss of control in flight while maneuvering
From Merritt Island Airport (COI) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- MIA88LA203
- 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
Hunter VELOCITY
- Aircraft type
- Hunter VELOCITY
- 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
- N128JM
- Operator
- Neil W. Hunter · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Merritt Island Airport (COI), Merritt Island, FLTo 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
- 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
- Fuel system, tank › Improper
- Manufacturer › Maintenance, modification, improper
- Remedial action › Not possible
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
WHILE CHECKING THE STALL CHARACTERISTICS OF A HOMEBUILT ACFT, THE ACFT DESCENDED IN A STALLED CONDITION UNTIL CRASHING INTO A RIVER. THE PLT WAS UNABLE TO LOWER THE NOSE. INVESTIGATION REVEALED THAT HE IMPROPERLY POSITIONED BAFFLES IN THE FUEL TANKS RESULTING IN AN INCREASE OF 20 GALLONS. IF THE ANGLE OF ATTACK WERE NOSE HIGH FUEL WOULD SHIFT AFT RESULTING IN AN OUT OF LIMIT AFT C.G. THE FUSELAGE HAD BEEN IMPROPERLY LEVELLED RESULTING IN A NOSE HIGH ATTITUDE. AS A RESULT THE POSITION OF THE AIRFOIL SHAPED TANKS LOCATED FWD OF EACH WING & BONDED TO THE FUSELAGE WERE IMPROPERLY POSITIONED. THE FUEL TANKS ARE PART OF THE WING & PROVIDE LIFT. THIS MOVED THE CENTER OF LIFT FWD, & WITH THE AFT SHIFTING OF FUEL RESULTED IN THE NOSE HIGH DESCENT. ACCORDING TO A PLT WHO HAS FLOWN A SIMILARLY DESIGNED ACFT, DURING FLT TESTING IT STALLED & DESCENDED IN THE SAME ATTITUDE OF THE ACCIDENT ACFT. RECOVERY OCCURRED WHEN HE ADDED AND MAINTAINED FULL POWER.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record MIA88LA203
- Event ID
- 20001213X25313
- Case number
- MIA88LA203
- 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: c27e4498a74f49e1003f0dc7295558b8157ea6abf1629bbab6a367b80a9e7dd9; retrieved 2026-09-21T16:13:19.622Z.