SEA87LA174 · Lutz FLYING DUTCHMAN FLYING DUT
Lutz FLYING DUTCHMAN FLYING DUT · Accident: loss of control in flight on approach
From Joslin Field Magic Valley Regional Airport (TWF) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- SEA87LA174
- 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
Lutz FLYING DUTCHMAN FLYING DUT
- Aircraft type
- Lutz FLYING DUTCHMAN
- 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
- N38Z
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Joslin Field Magic Valley Regional Airport (TWF)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
- Approach · VFR pattern base
- 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
- Destroyed
Cause areas
- Pilot in command › Airspeed, not maintained
- Pilot in command › Impairment(alcohol)
- Pilot in command › Judgment, poor
- Pilot in command › Stall, inadvertent
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PURPOSE OF THE FLT WAS TO CHECK THE ACFT AFTER REPLACING A WOODEN PROP WITH AN ALL METAL PROP & TO PREPARE FOR ENTRY IN THE RENO AIR RACES. BFR ENTERING THE AIR RACES. THE PLT NEEDED TO DEMONSTRATE HIS ABILITY TO MAKE A 'BARREL ROLL' & TO MAKE 3 LNDGS. THERE WAS NO OPERABLE RADIO IN THE ACFT, SO THE PLT USED A HAND HELD VHF TRANSCEIVER. AFTER HE TOOK OFF, RADIO COMM WITH THE ACFT WAS LOST, SO TWR PSNL USED VISUAL LGT SIGNALS FOR CONTROL. THE PLT MADE 2 TOUCH-&-GO LNDGS & HAD BGN A DSCNDG TURN TO FINAL APCH (3RD PATTERN), WHEN THE ACFT ROLLED INVERTED & PLUNGED TO THE GND. ONE WITNESS THOUGHT THE ACFT SNAP ROLLED. ANOTHER SAID IT WAS SWAYING FM SIDE TO SIDE AS IT PLUNGED TO THE GND. IT CRASHED IN A NOSE DWN ATTITUDE & THERE WAS LITTLE MOVEMENT AFTER IMPACT. NO PREIMPACT PART PROBLEM WAS FND. THE PLT'S BLOOD WAS CHECKED AT 2 LABS. ONE CHECK SHOWED AN ALCOHOL LVL OF 0.238%; THE OTHER SHOWED A LVL OF 0.200%. A CHECK OF THE PLT'S URINE SHOWED AN ALCOHOL LVL OF 0.207%. THE ARPT ELEV WAS 4151 FT.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record SEA87LA174
- Event ID
- 20001213X31946
- Case number
- SEA87LA174
- 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: 6ed32c9150c811c156693deb20282bb4b3de8241fa79523a31d4c61bc571449a; retrieved 2026-09-21T04:01:05.529Z.