ATL89DMG03 · Smithgall Pitts Special S-1C
Smithgall Pitts Special S-1C · Accident: in flight collision with terrain/water while maneuvering
From Triple W Airport (5W5) to Cox Airport (NC81)
Event
- NTSB case
- ATL89DMG03
- 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
Smithgall Pitts Special S-1C
- Aircraft type
- Smithgall Pitts Special 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
- N7VC
- Operator
- Vernon L. Cox · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Triple W Airport (5W5), Raleigh, NCTo Cox Airport (NC81), Apex, NC
- 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
- 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
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PILOT WAS PRACTICING AN AEROBATIC MANEUVER WHICH CULMINATED IN A SPIN. SUBSEQUENTLY, HE FOUND HIMSELF IN A POSITION FROM WHICH THERE WAS INSUFFICIENT ALTITUDE TO RECOVER. WHILE STILL DESCENDING, THE AIRCRAFT HIT TREES & CRASHED. THE PILOT WAS ABLE TO CRAWL AWAY FROM THE AIRCRAFT BEFORE IT BEGAN BURNING. SUBSEQUENTLY, THE AIRCRAFT WAS DEMOLISHED BY FIRE.
Probable cause
PILOT DID NOT MAINTAIN SUFFICIENT ALTITUDE TO INSURE RECOVERY FROM AN AEROBATIC MANEUVER AND SPIN.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ATL89DMG03
- Event ID
- 20001213X28233
- Case number
- ATL89DMG03
- 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: 859a63367a277c6e91669961f48eb8d095a80e2fb90582b8ec2a7081a2a82eab; retrieved 2026-09-21T15:55:43.865Z.