CEN10LA074 · Gibson Mark MANTA 503
Gibson Mark MANTA 503 · Accident: collision with terrain/object (non-CFIT) while maneuvering
From Conroe, TX to Conroe, TX
Event
- NTSB case
- CEN10LA074
- 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
- Instrument Meteorological Cond
Gibson Mark MANTA 503
- Aircraft type
- Gibson Mark MANTA 503
- Category
- Weight-Shift
- 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
- N193AW
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Conroe, TXTo Conroe, TX
- 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 · low-altitude flying
- 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
- Collision with terrain/object (non-CFIT)
- 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
- Wire
- 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
- Environmental issues › Physical environment
- Personnel issues › Action/decision
- Personnel issues › Task performance
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
While maneuvering near his home, the sport pilot decided to find a landing area near his house to wait out deteriorating weather. After selecting a potential parking lot, the pilot elected to perform a low pass to see if the area was suitable for landing. While approaching the far end of the parking lot the pilot observed power lines running perpendicular to his flight path. During an attempt to fly under the wires, the weight-shift trike impacted a static wire and subsequently the ground. An automated weather observing system 19 nautical miles northeast from the site of the accident, was reporting an overcast ceiling at 300 feet around the time of the accident. There were no reported anomalies with the trike's flight control system. Due to the pilot's injuries, he was unable to submit a NTSB 6120.1 accident reporting form.
Probable cause
The pilot's failure to maintain clearance from a static wire while maneuvering and his improper decision to fly with a low overcast sky.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CEN10LA074
- Event ID
- 20091215X93701
- Case number
- CEN10LA074
- 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, 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: c8c4ed9f9d05d86cdbb99955933d090c394a1c32d0b133a7b351a40e66c10a7f; retrieved 2026-09-15T13:34:29.986Z.