CEN10FA042 · Zenith Aircraft Co ZODIAC 601 XL
Zenith Aircraft Co ZODIAC 601 XL · Accident: part(s) separation from aircraft en route
From Sharp County Regional Airport (KCVK) to Sharp County Regional Airport (KCVK)
Event
- NTSB case
- CEN10FA042
- 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
Zenith Aircraft Co ZODIAC 601 XL
- Aircraft type
- Zenith ZODIAC 601
- 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
- N538CJ
- Operator
- Cummings Charles
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Sharp County Regional Airport (KCVK), Ash Flat, ARTo Sharp County Regional Airport (KCVK), Ash Flat, AR
- 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
- En route · cruise
- Defining eventThe 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
- Part(s) separation from aircraft
- 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
- Aircraft › Aircraft structures
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The light-sport airplane experienced an in-flight break-up during a cross-country flight. Flight track data recovered from an onboard global positioning system, and a subsequent performance study, depicted the airplane was maneuvering between the altitudes of 2,500 and 3,500 feet at airspeeds between about 60 and 108 knots calibrated airspeed (KCAS). The airplane performed a number of turns and maneuvers during the hour-plus flight, including a landing approach and pass over an airport. The calculated bank angle for the entire flight never exceeded 30 degrees. At the time when the breakup occurred, the airplane was climbing at about 500 feet per minute through 2,800 feet altitude and had accelerated to 100 KCAS. The estimated angle of attack was about 3 degrees during the last minute of the flight, and the airplane wreckage was spread over 600 feet on the ground. An examination of the airplane wreckage revealed compression buckling and upward and downward bending of both wings. The upward and downward movement, twisting, and flexing of the airplane wing surface was consistent with the occurrence of aerodynamic flutter. In addition, damage was noted on the flap assemblies consistent with over travel. Ultimately both wings failed in down bending. An examination of the engine revealed no anomalies. The accident pilot was experienced in the accident airplane and had built the airplane from a kit.
Probable cause
The in-flight separation of both wings due to aileron flutter. The aileron flutter was the result of inadequate wing stiffness and strength and the lack of aileron counterbalances.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CEN10FA042
- Event ID
- 20091107X34009
- Case number
- CEN10FA042
- Dataset
- full-current
- Source SHA-256
- 5cf380f0061817c0331a6b2d8cc7e0ee3a79bea469a1001dc5c10e56f35f5ab3
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. 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: 79e589a4b223903a819aa9f40c133ef11c9ca9ea4d29f40537c5b546495033f2; retrieved 2026-09-13T20:33:17.650Z.