DFW05LA193 · Zivko Aeronautics Inc. Edge 540-T
Zivko Aeronautics Inc. Edge 540-T · Accident: loss of control in flight while maneuvering
From North Texas Regional Airport Perrin Field (GYI) to Gisenyi Airport (GYI)
Event
- NTSB case
- DFW05LA193
- 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
Zivko Aeronautics Inc. Edge 540-T
- Aircraft type
- Zivko Aeronautics 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
- N95DE
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From North Texas Regional Airport Perrin Field (GYI), Denison, TXTo Gisenyi Airport (GYI)
- 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 › Aerobatics, performed
- 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 2,600-hour private pilot lost control of the airplane while performing low-altitude aerobatics at a lakeside boat event. Witnesses observed the airplane in a flat spin before leveling off and impacting the water in a 30 to 45 degrees nose down attitude. Flight control continuity was established to all flight controls, and no mechanical malfunctions or anomalies were found during the investigation. The pilot was in radio contact with a helicopter that was documenting the boat event. No distress calls were received from the mishap. The pilot was wearing an emergency parachute, but did not attempt to abandon the airplane. The flight visibility was reported as 10 miles at the time of the accident.
Probable cause
The pilot's failure to maintain control of the airplane while performing aerobatics. A contributing factor was the low altitude.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record DFW05LA193
- Event ID
- 20050804X01160
- Case number
- DFW05LA193
- 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: 049f9d220c88ea171a1682af0319b4490c387dd25034faea4ae39f3362d8b1aa; retrieved 2026-09-20T17:57:29.944Z.