ATL04LA128 · Grover J3 Kitten
Grover J3 Kitten · Accident: airframe, component or system failure while maneuvering
From Morristown, TN to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- ATL04LA128
- 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
Grover J3 Kitten
- Aircraft type
- Grover J3
- 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
- UNREG
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Morristown, TNTo 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
- Airframe, component or system failure
- 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 › Aerobatics, performed
- Pilot in command › Operation with known deficiencies in equipment, performed
- Wing, skin › Separation
- Wing, wing rib › Separation
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The non certificated pilot attempted VFR flight in a non-registered experimental airplane with known deficiencies in the right wing (broken ribs.) The airplane was observed by friends of the pilot performing aerobatic flight (hammerhead stalls) The trailing edge skin (fabric) was observed by the witnesses to separate from the back side of the wing. A decrease in power was heard by the witnesses and the airspeed of the airplane was observed to decrease. The right wing of the airplane dropped down, the nose pitched down as if the airplane was in a "stall." The airplane collided with the ground in a nose down attitude. Examination of the airplane revealed the wing fabric was glued and not stitched. The wing fabric had separated 3 feet outboard the wing root and extended outboard 4 feet. All ribs in the right wing were broken. No anomalies were noted with the flight controls. The Volkswagen engine assembly was not disassembled based on witness statements. The engine was removed and weighed. The engine assembly weighed 90 pounds. The aircraft empty weight authorized by 14 CFR Part 103.1 is 254 pounds. The empty weight of the airplane with the Volkswagen engine was 278 pounds. The airplane was required to be registered with the FAA in accordance with 14 CFR Part 47.3.
Probable cause
The pilot's decision to perform aerobatic flight in an airplane with known deficiencies that resulted in the in-flight separation of the airframe and the uncontrolled collision with the ground.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ATL04LA128
- Event ID
- 20040616X00805
- Case number
- ATL04LA128
- 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: local date, investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 2004-06-09.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 90bea49c3150fce39fb779c68592af7a3c66515b3668531be69deb1a361d1f7d; retrieved 2026-09-20T18:27:03.568Z.