SEA05LA188 · Kirner Fisher FP404
Kirner Fisher FP404 · Accident: airframe, component or system failure while maneuvering
From Prineville Airport (S39) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- SEA05LA188
- 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
Kirner Fisher FP404
- Aircraft type
- Kirner FISHER FP404
- 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 Prineville Airport (S39), Prineville, ORTo 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 › Design stress limits of aircraft, exceeded
- Wing › Separation
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
A witness in the area reported that he had been watching the aircraft perform "hard banks followed by 2-3 spins." The witness stated that the aircraft would recover and gain altitude to repeat the maneuver. The aircraft accomplished these maneuvers three times. The witness then observed the aircraft for about 2-3 seconds fly straight-and-level. The engine sound accelerated before the aircraft then pitched forward into a steep dive which lasted about 2-3 seconds before the witness observed what he believed was the right wing (upper or both) separate from the fuselage. The aircraft continued in a vertical dive while spinning to the ground. On site documentation of the wreckage by a FAA Inspector reported that the right wing section was found about 200 yards south of the main wreckage. Additional debris fragments were found laying approximately 200 yards further south beyond the wing section. The inspector stated that the lower right wing bolt which attaches the wing to the fuselage was in place, however, the wood material around the bolt pass through failed. The pilot owned this aircraft for about 2 years but failed to register the aircraft, nor was there an airworthiness certificate. The pilot, who was not a certificated mechanic was also accomplishing his own maintenance on the aircraft.
Probable cause
The design stress limits of the aircraft were exceeded resulting in a wing separation while the pilot was accomplishing maneuvers of hard banking turns, spins and steep descents.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record SEA05LA188
- Event ID
- 20050909X01428
- Case number
- SEA05LA188
- 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: ed600d508392a8781ae3e6623b7b14c331fbefefaecd514ee44f2546b0380c62; retrieved 2026-09-20T17:54:20.365Z.