FTW83FU002 · Pterodactyl ASCENGER II+ ASCENGER I
Pterodactyl ASCENGER II+ ASCENGER I · Accident: loss of control in flight while maneuvering
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW83FU002
- 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 ASCENGER II+ ASCENGER I
- Aircraft type
- Pterodactyl ASCENGER
- 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 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 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
- Substantial
Cause areas
- Pilot in command › Aircraft handling, not maintained
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE ULTRALIGHT VEHICLE HAD BEEN RECENTLY BUILT & HAD BEEN FLOWN ONCE BY AN EXPERIENCED ULTRALIGHT PLT. HE REPORTED THERE WERE NO DISCREPANCIES IN THE VEHICLE'S ASSEMBLY OR FLT CHARACTERISTICS. THE OWNER & 2 OTHER PERSONNEL MET AT THE FLYING AREA & ASSEMBLED THE VEHICLE. THE ONLY ONE WITH FLYING EXPERIENCE TOOK OFF & MADE SEVERAL PASSES OVER THE AREA. ON THE LAST PASS, HE WAVED BOTH HANDS & YELLED WHAT 1 WITNESS THOUGHT WAS 'I LOVE IT.' SHORTLY AFTER THAT, THE VEHICLE TURNED INTO THE WIND & BEGAN OSCILLATING IN PITCH. THE NOSE THEN PITCHED UP TO OR BEYOND A VERTICLE ATTITUDE & THE VEHICLE BEGAN DESCENDING TAIL 1ST, THEN CRASHED. WITNESSES REPORTED THAT THE WINGS FOLDED, BUT THEY WERE NOT SURE WHETHER THE WINGS FOLDED BEFORE OR AFTER THE VEHICLE ENTERED THE TAIL SLIDE. THE VEHICLE WAS NOT DESIGNED FOR A TAIL SLIDE. AN EXAM REVEALED THAT 1 LANDING WIRE & ALL 4 CANARD BRACE WIRES HAD SEPARATED FROM OVERLOAD. THE WIND WAS GUSTINGTO 20 KTS, A DUST DEVIL WAS SEEN IN THE VICINITY & SVRL MORE-EXPERIENCED PLTS HAD STOPPED FLYING DUE TO THE WINDS.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW83FU002
- Event ID
- 20001214X43734
- Case number
- FTW83FU002
- 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: 6a47d853db5fd900a78f74006cbb0b93a9944441bf84cbb7352aa7b32f60f640; retrieved 2026-09-21T06:25:45.613Z.