LAX08CA022 · Bagnall Harold E Kitfox Lite 2
Bagnall Harold E Kitfox Lite 2 · Accident: loss of control in flight while maneuvering
From Sandy River Airport (03S) to Sandy River Airport (03S)
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX08CA022
- 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
Bagnall Harold E Kitfox Lite 2
- Aircraft type
- Bagnall Harold KITFOX LITE 2
- 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
- N46361
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Sandy River Airport (03S), Sandy, ORTo Sandy River Airport (03S)
- 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/mush
- 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
- Pilot in command › Stall/mush, encountered
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot approached an island and spotted a suitable location on the sand to practice emergency landings. He was about 10 feet above the sand when he started his climb to the west. Approaching the end of the island he saw a boat to the southwest, and there was a reflection of the sun on the water restricting his visibility. About 75 feet above ground level, the pilot maneuvered to the right to avoid flying too close to the boat. The pilot felt an indication of a stall and lowered the nose of the airplane. The airplane impacted the Columbia River, shattering the windshield and opening both doors. The airplane sank immediately; the crew egressed and swam ashore. The pilot reported that there were no preimpact mechanical malfunctions or failures.
Probable cause
The pilot's failure to maintain an adequate airspeed while maneuvering at low altitude that resulted in a stall-mush condition and collision with the water.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX08CA022
- Event ID
- 20071205X01901
- Case number
- LAX08CA022
- 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: local date, investigation status, coordinates. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 2007-10-30.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 8c0587dd572d672c746935755615c855eeef73169bded89b7d03d1aeb1e2a937; retrieved 2026-09-22T03:18:14.320Z.