NYC83FU001 · Pterodactyl ASCENDER II ASCENDER I
Pterodactyl ASCENDER II ASCENDER I · Accident: loss of control in flight while maneuvering
From Lehighton, PA to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- NYC83FU001
- 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
Pterodactyl ASCENDER II ASCENDER I
- Aircraft type
- Pterodactyl ASCENDER
- Category
- Ultralight
- 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
- UNREG
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Lehighton, PATo 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 103: Ultralight
- 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
- Destroyed
Cause areas
- Pilot in command › Aircraft handling, not maintained
- Pilot in command › Design stress limits of aircraft, exceeded
- Pilot in command › Flight controls, improper use of
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
SEVERAL WITNESSES OBSERVED THE ULTRALIGHT VEHICLE TAKEOFF & CLIMB IN A CIRCULAR PATTERN TO AN ALT OF ABOUT 1500 FT. ONE WITNESS STATED THAT JUST PRIOR TO THE ACCIDENT SEQUENCE, THE ULTRALIGHT WAS TURNING WITH A STEEP ANGLE OF BANK. AT ABOUT THAT TIME, THE WITNESSES HEARD A REDUCTION IN POWER. TWO WITNESSES HEARD A POP/PUFF SOUND. A 3RD WITNESS STATED THE ULTRALIGHT FLIPPED OVER TWICE. ALL 3 WITNESSES REPORTED THAT THE WINGS FOLDED OR COLLAPSED & THE ULTRALIGHT FELL OR DOVE TO THE GROUND. AN EXAM OF THE WRECKAGE REVEALED THAT THE LEADING EDGE & REAR TUBULAR SPARS HAD FAILED IN A DOWNWARD DIRECTION (RELATIVE TO THE AIRFRAME). ALSO, THE KEEL WAS BROKEN, FORWARD OF THE REAR SPARS & THE KING POST WAS BENT DOWNWARD AT ABOUT THE MIDPOINT. NONE OF THE CABLES FAILED. DURING THE ACCIDENT SEQUENCE, THE RIGHT WINGLET SEPARATED & FELL ABOUT 100 FT FROM THE MAIN WRECKAGE.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record NYC83FU001
- Event ID
- 20001214X42551
- Case number
- NYC83FU001
- 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: b0f75cf6792e4cbbc8f2ae675d620b8141f226798eb8cb2a5d831b77bcc99e45; retrieved 2026-09-21T06:59:21.207Z.