CEN11FA528 · Wright B Flyer Inc WRIGHT B FLYER
Wright B Flyer Inc WRIGHT B FLYER · Accident: loss of control in flight during an emergency descent
From Springfield-Beckley Municipal Airport (SGH) to Springfield-Beckley Municipal Airport (SGH)
Event
- NTSB case
- CEN11FA528
- 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
Wright B Flyer Inc WRIGHT B FLYER
- Aircraft type
- Wright B Flyer WRIGHT B FLYER
- 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
- N453WB
- Operator
- Wright B Flyer
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Springfield-Beckley Municipal Airport (SGH), Springfield, OHTo Springfield-Beckley Municipal Airport (SGH), Springfield, OH
- 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
- Emergency descent
- 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
- Loss of control in flight
- 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
- Personnel issues › Task performance
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The experimental amateur-built replica airplane was on a test flight with two pilot-rated occupants. Another pilot heard a radio transmission from the accident airplane indicating that they were going to land in a field about 5 miles north of the departure airport. Witnesses reported that the airplane’s engine rpm varied while it was flying at a low altitude. The airplane was then observed in a spiraling descent to the ground. Postaccident examination of the airplane’s left propeller shaft revealed a broken weld, which would have prevented the left propeller from being driven by the engine. Further examination of the joint identified incomplete weld penetration during welding, thus about 25 to 35 percent of the through thickness of the propeller shaft tube was not welded to the propeller shaft end. This incomplete weld penetration occurred in the inner areas of the joint. Visible defects, such as pores and voids, were observed in the welded areas. The part’s engineering drawing specifies complete weld penetration. The on-scene accident examination of the wreckage did not reveal any other preimpact anomalies. Despite the resultant partial loss of thrust, the flight crew should have been able to maintain control of the airplane during the forced landing attempt.
Probable cause
The flight crew’s failure to maintain airplane control following a partial loss of engine thrust during cruise flight. Contributing to the accident was the failed weld as a result of incomplete welding on the left propeller shaft, which led to the partial loss of engine thrust.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CEN11FA528
- Event ID
- 20110730X40832
- Case number
- CEN11FA528
- 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: f5958e0e0cbadb8e103a6666bc075b842a8fba7e0e07ad891c6ef0d9b726b548; retrieved 2026-09-13T21:40:26.467Z.