NYC02LA120 · Smith Kitfox Classic IV
Smith Kitfox Classic IV · Accident: airframe, component or system failure on approach
From Limerick, ME (no airport) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- NYC02LA120
- 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
- 0 · 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
Smith Kitfox Classic IV
- Aircraft type
- Smith KITFOX CLASSIC
- 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
- N3023J
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Limerick, ME (no airport)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
- 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
- Airframe, component or system failure
- 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
- Owner/pilot mechanic › Maintenance, modification, not performed
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
After performing a "routine" inspection, the floatplane was taxied from the shoreline, to the center of the lake, where it departed. The pilot observed that something was wrong with the floats as soon as the floatplane lifted off the water. He felt a slight drag, as well as noise emitting from the floats. About 500 feet above the lake, the pilot elected to return for a landing. As the floatplane was about to touchdown, the noise from the floats increased. Observing that a landing could not be accomplished, and a collision with homes was approaching, the pilot aborted the landing. While setting up for a second approach to the lake, both float coverings separated from the forward section of the float shells. The floatplane then entered into a dive, and the pilot reduced power. The floatplane impacted the water nose first, and came to rest with the tail section protruding upward. The pilot egressed from the main cabin, and swam to the shore. Examination of the wreckage revealed that the floats were fabric covered, and had a hard plastic cover that zipped onto the bottom of each float. Both of the zippers were found partially unzipped. The manufacturer of the floats issued a Product Bulletin on November 20, 1998, which addressed a defect with the zippers installed on the floats. If any defects were observed with the zippers, the entire zipper would have to be replaced as a set. The manufacture also provided, free of charge, a kit that would provide a secondary means of keeping the hull cap attached to the float in the event of a zipper failure. The bulletin further stated, "This is a mandatory, permanent, modification that must be carried out before further flight." No maintenance logbooks for the airplane were recovered; however, the pilot stated that the previous owner of the floatplane had not complied with the manufacture's Product Bulletin, nor did he.
Probable cause
The pilot's failure to perform a modification required by the manufacturer, which resulted in a failure of the float covering.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record NYC02LA120
- Event ID
- 20020701X01013
- Case number
- NYC02LA120
- 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: 5a8af5fd51637e52919c19b5f0e29b0e91cff4354d74c7e07e600d956d51fd86; retrieved 2026-09-21T09:38:13.472Z.