SEA05CA191 · Gleason Sky Star Kitfox
Gleason Sky Star Kitfox · Accident: airframe, component or system failure during initial climb
From Crater Lake-Klamath Regional Airport (LMT) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- SEA05CA191
- 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
- 0 · 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
Gleason Sky Star Kitfox
- Aircraft type
- Gleason SKY STAR KITFOX
- 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
- N852PG
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Crater Lake-Klamath Regional Airport (LMT), Klamath Falls, 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
- Initial climb
- 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
- Flt control syst, aileron control cable/rod › Binding(mechanical)
- Fuselage, seat › Buckled
- Pilot in command › Aircraft control, not possible
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
According to the pilot/builder, he had completed the required number of initial solo flight hours following construction of the experimental airplane, and he wanted to familiarize himself with the airplane's flight characteristics when carrying additional weight before carrying a passenger. He placed a bag of cement in the right seat and used the lap and shoulder belts to secure the bag. He completed a "normal runup and control checks" and then performed a normal takeoff on runway 14. At an altitude of 20 to 30 feet, he "could not move flaperons." As he "applied more pressure stick moved abruptly to right." The airplane banked to the right, the pilot corrected, and the airplane banked to the left. He was unable to maintain control of the airplane, and the left wingtip contacted the runway. The airplane settled onto the runway, and the left main gear collapsed. When the pilot examined the airplane after the accident, he found scrape marks on the flaperon push pull tube that was routed below the front seat. He also noted that the "seat was lower than normal after crash."
Probable cause
The binding of the flaperon push pull tube due to deformation of the front seat, which resulted in a loss of control on takeoff initial climb and collision with the runway.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record SEA05CA191
- Event ID
- 20051007X01598
- Case number
- SEA05CA191
- 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: eb52429469f7cc27e709fc886ca8d6c8dbf3d9c45dc9d190f6c408e09cef7b84; retrieved 2026-09-22T05:22:49.912Z.