DFW06LA094 · Aviation Specialties Unlimited Challenger II
Aviation Specialties Unlimited Challenger II · Accident: airframe, component or system failure while maneuvering
From The Red River Airport (0R7) to Coushatta, LA
Event
- NTSB case
- DFW06LA094
- 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
Aviation Specialties Unlimited Challenger II
- Aircraft type
- Aviation Specialties Unlimited CHALLENGER
- 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
- N260HP
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From The Red River Airport (0R7), Coushatta, LATo Coushatta, LA
- 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
- Destroyed
Cause areas
- Flt control syst, elevator control bearing › Failure, total
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The commercial pilot departed the airfield for a local aerobatic flight. While performing aerobatic maneuvers, the airplane experienced a failure of the elevator control system. The 18,971-hour pilot was able to recover and maneuver the airplane to a safe altitude over an uninhabited area. Once over the safe area, the pilot elected to exit the airplane and deploy his emergency parachute. The airplane was destroyed upon impact with the ground. The elevator's push-pull tube assembly was located in the wreckage with a broken rod-end bearing. The elevator push-pull tube is fitted with two rod-end bearings, one in each end of the tube. The first rod-end bearing was unbroken, but slightly bent to one side. The unbroken rod-end bearing had the markings of FAFNIR on the side of the bearing retainer, and 2P on the side of the shank, at the base of the outer race or banjo. The second (failed) rod-end bearing's outer race was fractured in two places, leaving just the threaded shank and approximately the bottom one-third of the outer race. The top section of the failed bearing and associated parts were not located and therefore, no identification marks could be associated with the outer race. Nor were there any identification markings on the hollow shank. During load testing of similar rod-end bearings, three bearings failed at 870 pounds or less. These bearings had the markings of FEDERAL RE3ML6-2N MADE IN THE USA, on the side of the bearing retainer. Also, rod-end bearings identified as "FEDERAL" all had no additional identification marks on a hollow shaft. Rod-end bearings identified as FAFNIR all had solid shafts, and the markings of "2P" on the shank near the base of the banjo head. FAFNIR bearings used in the test all failed above 3,200 pounds. The ultimate (minimum) load requirement for the rod-end bearings is 1,500 pounds.
Probable cause
The loss of control due to premature failure of the elevator's push-pull tube rod-end bearing.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record DFW06LA094
- Event ID
- 20060405X00398
- Case number
- DFW06LA094
- 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: afcaeaee24a3882f1924cdefa8246b2950e655a83043442f6eacaf8b4a583bda; retrieved 2026-09-22T05:01:53.556Z.