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CHI89DEC06 · Feil BD-5

26 Aug 1989 · Pontiac, MI, United States

Feil BD-5 · Accident: loss of control in flight during initial climb

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Event

NTSB case
CHI89DEC06
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

Feil BD-5

Aircraft type
Feil BD-5
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
N9BD
Operator
Unknown
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
Initial climb
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/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 › Airspeed, not maintained

Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.

NTSB narrative

WITNESSES OBSERVED THE AIRCRAFT DEPART ON RUNWAY 09R AT A HIGH PITCH ATTITUDE. SHORTLY AFTER DEPARTURE THE AIRCRAFT ENTERED A LEFT ROLL TO A NEAR INVERTED POSITION AND DESCENDED TO TERRAIN IMPACT APPROXIMATELY 1/2 MILE EAST OF THE AIRPORT. INSPECTION REVEALED NO MALFUNCTION/FAILURE OF THE AIRCRAFT WHICH WOULD HAVE RESULTED IN THE LOSS OF CONTROL. THIS FLIGHT WAS THE SECOND FLIGHT FOR THE PILOT IN THIS AIRCRAFT SINCE 1987. THE PILOT REPORTEDLY STATED TO A WITNESS THAT HE WANTED TO FLY TO GET USED TO THE FEEL OF THE FLIGHT CONTROLS OF THE AIRCRAFT.

Probable cause

THE PILOT'S FAILURE TO MAINTAIN ADEQUATE AIRSPEED DURING TAKEOFF WHICH RESULTED IN A STALL/SPIN. CONTRIBUTING TO THE ACCIDENT WAS THE EXCESSIVE PULL-UP MANEUVER AND THE PILOT'S LACK OF TOTAL EXPERIENCE IN THE AIRCRAFT.

Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset

Sources

NTSB record CHI89DEC06
Event ID
20001213X29054
Case number
CHI89DEC06
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: 825a73f9925efb46ab3de36c4922be32729871d93b8b56f14dbdcb4aab7e02c6; retrieved 2026-09-21T03:10:58.109Z.