NYC03FA180 · Aero Vodochody L-39ZO
Aero Vodochody L-39ZO · Accident: loss of control in flight on approach
From Martin State Airport (MTN) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- NYC03FA180
- 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
Aero Vodochody L-39ZO
- Aircraft type
- Aero Vodochody L-39
- 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
- N298RD
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Martin State Airport (MTN), Baltimore, MDTo 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 go-around
- 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
- Destroyed
Cause areas
- Pilot in command › In-flight planning/decision, improper
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
Several witnesses observed the airplane approach the airpark, proceed over the runway low level, and initiate a go-around. During the go-around, the airplane pitched upwards and began to lose velocity. At the peak of the airplane's accent, the airplane stalled, nosed over, and descended towards the ground. The airplane impacted the southwest corner of a 3-story residential home, located about 1/2-mile west of the airpark, and subsequently impacted the ground, where a post crash fire ensued. Examination of the engine's fuel control revealed that the throttle arm was in the full power position. Examination of the cockpit area revealed that the engine tachometer needles were observed at "28 percent" for N1, and "56 percent" for N2. The fuel pressure needle was observed at its normal pressure reading for a high power setting, and the oil pressure needle and oil temperature gages were observed at a position consistent with the engine developing power. According to the airplanes Flight Training manual, the time required for the engine to accelerate from a low engine speed to high engine speed (idle to max power), was approximately 9 to 12 seconds. The pilot had accumulated about 25 hours of total flight experience in the L-39. The pilot had been informed in the past by the manager of the airplane to maintain 75 percent rpm or better while landing, in the event that a go-around had to be executed. The manager accentuated to the pilot that he needed to be aware that the engine took close to 12 seconds to spool up, and having the extra power lessened the engines response time in the event of a go-around. No pre-impact abnormalities with the airframe or powerplant were observed.
Probable cause
The pilot's in-flight decision to delay application of engine power to account for the engine's slow response to throttle input, which resulted in an inadvertent stall and subsequent collision with a residential area. A factor related to the accident was the pilot's lack of experience in jet-powered airplanes.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record NYC03FA180
- Event ID
- 20030909X01491
- Case number
- NYC03FA180
- 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: d616bacd16f9f01fd8fd47633e8ab38c3633b69bdacd6695eacddae922b6b15f; retrieved 2026-09-20T18:59:04.273Z.