MIA02LA054 · Quitzau, Carl Vortex
Quitzau, Carl Vortex · Accident: loss of control in flight en route
From Immokalee Regional Airport (KIMM) to Immokalee Regional Airport (KIMM)
Event
- NTSB case
- MIA02LA054
- 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
Quitzau, Carl Vortex
- Aircraft type
- Quitzau Carl VORTEX
- Category
- Gyroplane
- 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
- None
- Operator
- Carl M. Quitzau · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Immokalee Regional Airport (KIMM), Immokalee, FLTo Immokalee Regional Airport (KIMM)
- 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
- En route · cruise
- 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 › Directional control, not maintained
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The accident occurred during the third flight of the day, and according to a witness, before beginning the first flight of the day, the accident pilot installed the main rotor blades. The first flight lasted approximately 10 minutes. After landing, the accident pilot reported to the witness that he encountered, "stick shake" during the flight. The accident pilot adjusted the main rotor blades then departed on the second flight which lasted approximately 20 minutes. The witness reported that the accident pilot advised with words to the effect that during the second flight, the gyroplane was flying a little better. The accident pilot performed a slight adjustment to the main rotor blades and fueled the fuel tank to about 3/4 capacity. The flight then departed, returned, and when flying approximately 50 feet above ground level, at an estimated airspeed of between 55 and 60 mph; the pilot's feet were observed outside the cockpit. When the flight was near the witness' position, the gyroplane began a gradual yaw to the left. The gyroplane then rolled left to an inverted position, pitched nose down, and impacted the ground. The witness reported he did not hear a change in engine sound from the time the gyrocraft was flying near his position to the time the gyrocraft began yawing and he did not perceive an engine malfunction. The gyroplane was not registered with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), though the designer reported it should have been registered with the FAA. The gyroplane impacted a grassy area near the approach end of runway 36 between the runway and taxiway on a heading of 030 degrees, traveled 6 feet, and came to rest 180 degrees from the initial impact heading. Ground scars from both rotor blades were observed. Two of the three propeller blades were found separated, the third propeller blade remained secured. Examination of the gyroplane following recovery by the FAA inspector-in-charge (FAA-IIC) revealed evidence that the gyroplane impacted the ground with the nose; there was no evidence of preimpact mechanical failure. Examination of the flight controls revealed no evidence of preimpact failure or malfunction. The gyroplane had been operated for 3.3 hours since new at the time of the accident.
Probable cause
The failure of the pilot to maintain directional control of the gyroplane resulting in the in-flight loss of control and subsequent in-flight collision with terrain.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record MIA02LA054
- Event ID
- 20020201X00157
- Case number
- MIA02LA054
- 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: 22939870542c43a3ddf37209427fde2caf22e27f3a7a28b7906c346094894b7f; retrieved 2026-09-20T20:13:57.724Z.