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NYC01FA212 · Pitts S-2B

21 Aug 2001 · Shirley, NY, United States

Pitts S-2B · Accident: loss of control in flight on approach

From Brookhaven Calabro Airport (HWV) to an unrecorded destination

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Event

NTSB case
NYC01FA212
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
Unknown
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

Pitts S-2B

Aircraft type
Pitts S-2
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
N225SD
Operator
Unknown
Onboard fatalities
Unknown
Route
From Brookhaven Calabro Airport (HWV), Shirley, NYTo 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 final
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
Substantial

Cause areas

  • Pilot in command › Airspeed, not maintained
  • Pilot in command(cfi) › Remedial action, inadequate

Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.

NTSB narrative

On the day of the accident, the flight instructor and pilot under instruction planned to fly several normal traffic patterns, then perform a simulated engine-out landing. They executed a normal takeoff, and after completing the traffic patterns, the student announced over the radio he would be performing a simulated-engine-out landing. While on downwind, the student had to perform several "s- turns" to maintain separation from a slower airplane ahead. On final, the airplane was low and slow. The right wing then dropped, and the airplane impacted the ground about 530 feet short of the runway. The flight instructor had approximately 3,000 hours of total flight experience. He was actively flying in the accident airplane make and model, and had accumulated about 2,000 hours in them. The student had 535 hours of total flight experience, and 56 hours in make and model. Examination of the wreckage revealed no preimpact failures or malfunctions, and the pilot under instruction could not remember experiencing any mechanical difficulties.

Probable cause

The pilot under instruction's failure to maintain adequate airspeed, and the flight instructor's inadequate remedial action during a simulated engine-out approach, which resulted in an inadvertent stall, and subsequent ground impact.

Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset

Sources

NTSB record NYC01FA212
Event ID
20010830X01830
Case number
NYC01FA212
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, coordinates. 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: c876efe8a5184f428e004ea6a1116ff5bfe9ccce31765b6df2f3676183b75018; retrieved 2026-09-20T20:24:15.506Z.