MIA89LA117 · LEE, David VELOCITY
LEE, David VELOCITY · Accident: loss of control in flight while maneuvering
From Northeast Florida Regional Airport (SGJ) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- MIA89LA117
- 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
LEE, David VELOCITY
- Aircraft type
- Lee David 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
- N81VA
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Northeast Florida Regional Airport (SGJ), ST. AUGUSTINE, 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
- 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
- Flight control surfaces/attachments › Improper
- Pilot in command › Aircraft preflight, inadequate
- Pilot in command › Lack of familiarity with aircraft
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE EXPERIMENTAL AMATEUR-BUILT ACFT WAS ON A TEST FLT AT 10,000 FT TO PERFORM SOME MANEUVERS WITH THE CG AT THE MOST REARWARD LIMITS. THE ACFT WAS PLACED INTO AN 'AGGRAVATED STALL' DURING WHICH THE ACFT ENTERED A 'DEEP STALL'. ALL CONVENTIONAL & UNCONVENTIONAL MEANS OF REGAINING CONTROL OF THE ACFT, INCLUDING THE PLT CLIMBING OUT OF THE COCKPIT & LEANING AS FAR FWD AS POSSIBLE, FAILED TO RECOVER CONTROL OF THE ACFT. AT ONE POINT, THE PLT CONSIDERED BAILING OUT, BUT CHANGED HIS MIND DUE TO THE ZERO BANK, ZERO FWD SPEED, ZERO YAW & SLOW DESCENT TOWARD THE OCEAN. AFTER THE HARD VERTICAL IMPACT, THE PLT RELEASED HIS HARNESS & STEPPED INTO THE WATER. THE ACFT WAS RECOVERED & AN EXAM REVEALED THAT THE CANARD GAP SEALS WHICH HAD BEEN INSTALLED TO ENHANCE PITCH AUTHORITY OF THE CANARD ON THE PREV FLT, WERE STILL IN PLACE DUE TO AN OVERSIGHT. WITH THE GAP SEALS INSTALLED, THE CANARD PITCH AUTHORITY EXCEEDED THE AUTHORITY OF THE WING.
Probable cause
FAILURE THROUGH AN OVERSIGHT TO REMOVE THE CANARD GAP SEALS PRIOR TO AGGRAVATED STALL TESTING WHICH RESULTED IN THE AIRCRAFT ENTERING AN UNCONTROLLABLE FLIGHT REGIME.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record MIA89LA117
- Event ID
- 20001213X27954
- Case number
- MIA89LA117
- 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: 67321de2ac0c87bf0d106329b530faa258f16b3d87c9bae5d7231731145bd686; retrieved 2026-09-23T07:45:54.216Z.