SEA03FA041 · Grubert KIS TRI-R TR-1
Grubert KIS TRI-R TR-1 · Accident: loss of control in flight on approach
From 1S0 · Puyallup, WA to 1S0 · Puyallup, WA
Event
- NTSB case
- SEA03FA041
- 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
- 2 · 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
Grubert KIS TRI-R TR-1
- Aircraft type
- Grubert KIS TRI-R TR-1
- 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
- N23KS
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From 1S0 · Puyallup, WATo 1S0 · Puyallup, WA
- 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 downwind
- 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/spin
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Destroyed
Cause areas
- Pilot in command › Airspeed, 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 and pilot rated passenger were observed getting into the homebuilt KIS TRI-R TR-1 experimentally certificated aircraft. The pilot had made three attempts to start the engine with the third being successful and the aircraft taxied out and departed on the 6,500 foot paved runway (34) to the north. The aircraft climbed out, turned right onto a crosswind, momentarily leveled its wings and then entered a second right turn to a downwind. During the second turn, witnesses saw the aircraft depart controlled flight and enter a spin descending to ground impact. A post crash fire consumed the aircraft. Post crash disassembly and examination of the engine revealed no evidence of a mechanical malfunction. The aircraft had a maximum takeoff weight of 1,500 pounds and an empty weight of 943 pounds, and the combined weight of both occupants was reported as 436 pounds. The total amount of fuel on board was not known, however, a witness observed the aircraft being fueled from containers on the ramp before the departure. Exclusive of fire damage to the aluminum elevator and aileron control push/pull rods, there was no evidence of any control discontinuity.
Probable cause
The pilot-in-command's failure to maintain adequate flying airspeed during the turn from crosswind to downwind resulting in an inadvertent stall/spin and subsequent collision with terrain (ground).
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record SEA03FA041
- Event ID
- 20030227X00264
- Case number
- SEA03FA041
- 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: 99cb08dab94178fc16fb2ea4a5d03ea537940bc24b1f05a6a5700b36ad921213; retrieved 2026-09-20T19:26:48.598Z.