NYC04LA004 · Pfeifler Edge-540
Pfeifler Edge-540 · Accident: loss of control in flight while maneuvering
From W66 · Warrenton, VA to W66
Event
- NTSB case
- NYC04LA004
- 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
Pfeifler Edge-540
- Aircraft type
- Pfeifler EDGE-540
- 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
- N540SH
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From W66 · Warrenton, VATo W66
- 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
- Maneuvering
- 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
- Destroyed
Cause areas
- Pilot in command › Aircraft 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 was practicing aerobatics for an upcoming air show. The airplane was observed in a vertical climb, followed by a downward spiral. The airplane then leveled off, and entered a flat spin, before it pitched down and impacted the ground. Examination of the airplane did not reveal any pre-impact mechanical malfunctions. The airplane had been operated for about 520 hours at the time of it's most recent condition inspection, which was performed about 3 weeks prior to the accident. The airplane had been operated for about 23 hours since the inspection. The pilot purchased the airplane about 8 months prior to the accident, and possessed a current statement of acrobatic competency.
Probable cause
The pilot's failure to maintain aircraft control while performing aerobatic maneuvers.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record NYC04LA004
- Event ID
- 20031014X01713
- Case number
- NYC04LA004
- 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: 37b62a9935631455446731b0e687128b287ebd2e665ae97f8b85399d9933887b; retrieved 2026-09-20T18:54:39.897Z.