MIA02LA172 · Ronald Levee Kitfox IV
Ronald Levee Kitfox IV · Accident: loss of control on ground/water during landing
From Deland Municipal Sidney H Taylor Field (KDED) to Deland Municipal Sidney H Taylor Field (KDED)
Event
- NTSB case
- MIA02LA172
- 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
Ronald Levee Kitfox IV
- Aircraft type
- Ronald Levee KITFOX
- 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
- N1441Z
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Deland Municipal Sidney H Taylor Field (KDED), De Land, FLTo Deland Municipal Sidney H Taylor Field (KDED)
- 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
- Landing
- 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 on ground/water
- 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 pilot stated that after returning to the departure airport, he entered the traffic pattern for runway 30 (announcing all positions), and noticed a Cessna 172 taxied onto the approach end of runway 30. He continued the downwind leg, turned base, and observed the Cessna 172 was still on the runway. He turned final approach and observed that the Cessna 172 was starting the takeoff roll. He slowed the airplane, and later reported there was a slight crosswind from the right. He touched down first on the right main landing gear, and reported experiencing a blast of air from the right. The airplane then bounced and weather vaned to the right. He then overcorrected with aileron input causing the left wingtip to contact the runway. The airplane departed the left side of the runway and came to rest heading 030 degrees; the right main landing gear was collapsed and the left main landing gear was separated. The pilot reported there was no mechanical failure or malfunction. Examination of the airplane by an FAA inspector revealed that the right wingtip contacted the runway. Additionally, the pilot reported to the FAA inspector that he should have performed a go-around rather than be in close proximity to the departing Cessna 172 airplane at the point of touchdown.
Probable cause
The failure of the pilot to maintain directional control of the airplane during the flare/touchdown resulting in substantial damage. A factor in the accident was the poor in-flight planning decision by the pilot for his continuing the approach in close proximity to a departing airplane.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record MIA02LA172
- Event ID
- 20020930X05246
- Case number
- MIA02LA172
- 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: d2d7b13a90780281172ea61442a35cc72bb4513f5bd68517abe5130f0bff039c; retrieved 2026-09-22T10:10:18.170Z.