CEN11LA459 · Wingtip TO WINGTIP, LLC PANZL S-330
John Klatt Airshows Wingtip TO WINGTIP, LLC PANZL S-330 · Accident: part(s) separation from aircraft while maneuvering
From Battle Creek Executive Airport at Kellogg Field (BTL) to Battle Creek Executive Airport at Kellogg Field (BTL)
Event
- NTSB case
- CEN11LA459
- 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
Wingtip TO WINGTIP, LLC PANZL S-330
- Aircraft type
- Wingtip To Wingtip PANZL S-330
- 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
- N330JK
- Operator
- John Klatt Airshows
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Battle Creek Executive Airport at Kellogg Field (BTL), Battle Creek, MITo Battle Creek Executive Airport at Kellogg Field (BTL), Battle Creek, MI
- 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
- 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
- Substantial
Cause areas
- Aircraft › Aircraft systems
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The entire left aileron separated from the airplane as the pilot was performing an aerobatic aileron-roll maneuver during an airshow aerobatic demonstration flight. The pilot was able to recover into level flight and make an uneventful landing. The pilot stated that his preflight inspection before the accident flight did not reveal any mechanical issues with the airplane, including loose jam nuts or any other aileron anomalies. However, the pilot reported that his aviation mechanic had to retighten the jam nut for the center aileron hinge rod-end after it had been found loose on several occasions before the accident flight.
A postaccident examination revealed that the center aileron hinge had failed in the shank region of the rod end due to reverse bending fatigue. No material issues were identified with the center aileron rod end, which met the part specifications. A design analysis confirmed that the aileron rod ends were adequate for the limit loads on the structure but were inadequate for fatigue tolerance. The stress levels in the rod end shank were at or above the endurance limit for the specified rod end material, regardless of a loose or tight jam nut. However, a loose jam nut further increased the stress in the rod end about 28 percent and would have reduced the cycles to a fatigue failure. Following the accident, the airplane manufacturer redesigned the aileron bracket assemblies by increasing the diameter of the rod end shank and reducing the moment arm between the bearing and the aileron bracket. The redesign yielded a total stress reduction of about 83 percent in the rod end, which was significantly below the endurance limit for the specified material.
Probable cause
The inadequate aileron hinge design, which resulted in the in-flight separation of the left aileron following a fatigue failure of the center hinge rod-end.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CEN11LA459
- Event ID
- 20110707X24548
- Case number
- CEN11LA459
- 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: 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 2011-07-03.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 76b6e650570a3c031e701122e379a36de11f592b9de650fd5c0cf21b6d1bbb24; retrieved 2026-09-15T16:25:10.877Z.