WPR10LA104 · Airborne Streak 2
Airborne Streak 2 · Accident: aircraft structural failure while maneuvering
From Lake Isabella, CA to Lake Isabella, CA
Narrative check · The NTSB narrative appears to contradict this record's location. Values are shown as recorded, not corrected; compare with the narrative.
Event
- NTSB case
- WPR10LA104
- 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
- 2 · 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
Airborne Streak 2
- Aircraft type
- Airborne STREAK 2
- 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
- N155TD
- Operator
- Donald Wright
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Lake Isabella, CATo Lake Isabella, CA
- 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 · aerobatics
- 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
- Aircraft structural 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
- Aircraft › Aircraft structures
- Personnel issues › Action/decision
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
Witnesses reported the pilot appeared to be performing aerobatic maneuvers and attempting to perform loops, as the airplane made numerous nose-high and nose-low maneuvers. Estimates of the airplane's altitude varied between 300 and 500 feet above ground level. The witnesses stated that the airplane was in level flight when the nose pointed down steeply 45-90 degrees, and then started to transition up. Just after the nose went above the horizon, the right wing folded upward. The engine then lost power and the airplane entered into a free fall. A post accident examination of the wreckage revealed that the fracture surface of the wing spar were consistent with overload forces being applied to the airframe. The pilot did not hold a pilot or medical certificate. Post-mortem toxicology testing on the pilot was consistent with use of methamphetamine, marijuana, and diazepam, but there was no urine or blood available for testing; therefore, it was not possible to estimate the last time when the substances might have been used or whether the pilot may have been impaired by that use. The operating limitations for the airplane noted that it was prohibited from aerobatic flight.
Probable cause
The pilot’s performance of prohibited aerobatic flight maneuvers that exceeded the structural limits of the airplane, resulting in an in-flight breakup.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record WPR10LA104
- Event ID
- 20100109X81420
- Case number
- WPR10LA104
- 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: 9d0571fa97f0c5530c2e64fca3df7bce9736447f6dd18c5a1c527b17d1ae73c6; retrieved 2026-09-13T20:36:23.493Z.