WPR11FA225 · P&M Aviation Ltd PEGASUS QUIK 912S
P&M Aviation Ltd PEGASUS QUIK 912S · Accident: abrupt maneuver while maneuvering
From Port Allen Airport (PAK) to Port Allen Airport (PAK)
Event
- NTSB case
- WPR11FA225
- 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
- Visual Meteorological Cond
P&M Aviation Ltd PEGASUS QUIK 912S
- Aircraft type
- P PEGASUS QUIK 912S
- 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
- N705PM
- Operator
- Kauai Aerosports
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Port Allen Airport (PAK), Hanapepe, HITo Port Allen Airport (PAK), Hanapepe, HI
- 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
- Abrupt maneuver
- 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 oper/perf/capability
- Aircraft › Aircraft structures
- 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
The sport pilot flight instructor was giving an introductory instructional flight in a light sport weight-shift-control aircraft. Review of video recorded by two video cameras attached to the aircraft indicated that the takeoff and departure were uneventful with no observed difficulties with the aircraft’s airframe, wing, or engine. About 30 minutes into the flight, the video documented the instructor maneuvering the aircraft in the vicinity of the accident site. The video documentation stopped about 15 seconds before the accident due to data buffering time. However, witnesses observed the aircraft low over the water flying directly toward a scallop-shaped sandy beach surrounded on three sides by high rocky cliffs. The pilot was observed to fly the aircraft within 50 to 100 feet of the cliffs in a steep-bank, 180-degree turn. The witnesses said that the aircraft's bank angle increased to nearly 90 degrees, and the aircraft began to descend rapidly in a side-slip. As the aircraft completed its turn about 200 feet above ground level, and with its nose pointed steeply downward, the pilot was observed to push aggressively forward on the flight controls, and a loud “pop” was heard. One witness observed the right wing's fabric go slack, and the aircraft performed a complete barrel roll to the right. Moments later the aircraft impacted the ocean.
Postaccident examination of the wreckage found numerous holes torn in the wing fabric and several repair patches were identified on the fabric. Testing with a Bettsometer fabric tester determined that the fabric had deteriorated due to exposure to sunlight and that its strength was below the manufacturer’s recommendations for flight. A manufacturer’s representative stated that the pilot had contacted him several weeks before the accident and ordered a new replacement wing, which indicates that the pilot was aware of the fabric’s deteriorated condition.
The maximum takeoff gross weight for the aircraft was 903 pounds. An estimate of the aircraft's weight at takeoff indicated that it was about 121 pounds overweight. This excess weight increased the load on the aircraft’s wing and likely contributed to the failure of the fabric.
Probable cause
The pilot's continued operation of the aircraft with deteriorated wing fabric and his aggressive maneuvering at low altitude, which resulted in the right wing fabric’s failure during flight. Contributing to the accident was the pilot's loading of the aircraft in excess of the maximum gross weight limit.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record WPR11FA225
- Event ID
- 20110517X13240
- Case number
- WPR11FA225
- 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: 9ff970659f1dc83fb7f4e0e8e148c030ae0293132e424289dcff529729b1c013; retrieved 2026-09-13T21:24:24.730Z.