LAX04LA125 · Knapple/Wray Lancair IV-P
Knapple/Wray Lancair IV-P · Accident: loss of control in flight while maneuvering
From Falcon Field (FFZ) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX04LA125
- 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
Knapple/Wray Lancair IV-P
- Aircraft type
- Knapple/wray Lancair IV-P
- 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
- N330KT
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Falcon Field (FFZ), Falcon Field, AZTo 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
- 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
- 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
- Pilot in command › Stall/spin, inadvertent
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The airplane was observed by three witnesses in a flat counterclockwise spin from about 2,000 feet as it descended to ground impact. No one observed the airplane prior to the spin. All of the witnesses, one of whom is a commercial pilot, heard the sound of the turbine engine running throughout the spin, which consisted of 3 or 4 complete rotations. The purpose of the flight was to meet the specifications as outlined in the Phase 1 flight testing portion of the experimental operating limitations, as issued by the FAA. This was the third recorded flight. Due to the post-impact fire, control continuity was not confirmed during the subsequent wreckage examination. No evidence of preexisting mechanical malfunctions was noted with either the engine or propeller assembly. The engine and propeller control linkages were in the normal operating range near flight idle. During engine disassembly and teardown, a composite material, similar to a heat shield material commonly used to insulate the composite cowling, was located in the compressor and burner sections of the engine. The engine is a reverse flow free power turbine, with the power turbine shaft connected to the propeller. The engine is mounted in the airframe with the compressor inlet at the rear of the engine compartment.
Probable cause
the pilot/builder's failure to maintain an adequate airspeed while maneuvering that resulted in an inadvertent stall/spin.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX04LA125
- Event ID
- 20040223X00216
- Case number
- LAX04LA125
- 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: ad1e831d34dbd3ae96cacd3231daa81e167ae9a9d067c1958882e80036ca8c67; retrieved 2026-09-20T18:33:40.153Z.