LAX05LA009 · Brackett AND Peltz Kit Fox III
Brackett AND Peltz Kit Fox III · Accident: loss of control in flight while maneuvering
From Bouse, AZ to Wickenburg Municipal Airport (E25)
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX05LA009
- 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
Brackett AND Peltz Kit Fox III
- Aircraft type
- Brackett And Peltz KIT FOX
- 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
- N543BP
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Bouse, AZTo Wickenburg Municipal Airport (E25), Wickenburg, AZ
- 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
- 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 › 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 airplane impacted a concrete ravine after performing a series of erratic maneuvers. While nearing the intended destination, and in company with another airplane, the pilot radioed that he wanted to divert to a nearby airport to stretch his legs. The occupants of the other airplane said they wanted to continue to the original destination. The airplane then made several erratic turns, and as the airplane's altitude decreased, the pilot announced over the radio "I'm having a problem." With several expansive farm fields below, the airplane flew in one direction and then traversed in another direction, which a witness pilot thought was unusual for a pilot setting up for an emergency landing. While making these erratic turns, about 500 feet above ground level (agl), the airplane stalled, diving nose first into a concrete ravine. A Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) inspector examined the airframe and engine at the accident site. He noted no anomalies or preimpact mechanical malfunctions with the airplane. A second examination was conducted after the airplane was recovered by a mechanic very familiar with the aircraft and it's systems and no mechanical malfunctions or failures were found with the airplane's control system. The Medical Examiner who preformed an autopsy on the pilot did not note any evidence of pre-existing disease.
Probable cause
the pilot's failure to maintain adequate airspeed while maneuvering, which resulted in a stall. The nature and scope of the problem reported by the pilot is undetermined.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX05LA009
- Event ID
- 20041019X01656
- Case number
- LAX05LA009
- 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: 802ef835bc961347bce10c59b9b561ce7fa6559543bff661c53d45256062979f; retrieved 2026-09-20T18:18:37.922Z.