WPR12LA442 · Air Creation TANARG
Air Creation TANARG · Accident: loss of control in flight while maneuvering
From Safford Regional Airport (SAD) to Show Low Regional Airport (SOW)
Event
- NTSB case
- WPR12LA442
- 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
- 1 · 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
Air Creation TANARG
- Aircraft type
- Air Creation TANARG
- 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
- N2751N
- Operator
- Schmitt Adam N
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Safford Regional Airport (SAD), Safford, AZTo Show Low Regional Airport (SOW), Show Low, AZ
- 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
- 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
- Personnel issues › Task performance
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
While flying in loose formation with another airplane to the destination airport, the accident airplane descended to about 400 feet above ground level. The pilot subsequently advised the pilot of the other airplane that the wind had become stronger and was affecting his airplane’s controllability. He added that he might attempt to land or consider returning to the departure airport. Shortly thereafter, the airplane made a descending right turn and impacted the ground.
An examination of the wreckage revealed that the airplane was equipped with a nonstandard, smaller wing and was trimmed to the near full nose-down position, which would increase the airplane’s stall speed. According to the wing manufacturer, the nonstandard wing has controllability problems at high speeds. Surface weather observations reported wind gusting to 22 knots near the time of the accident. The combination of the nonstandard wing, which reduced controllability, the full nose-down trim, which increased the stall speed, and the high wind gusts resulted in the pilot’s failure to maintain control of the airplane.
Postmortem toxicological testing of specimens from the pilot indicated the recent use of marijuana. Although the levels were such that the use may have been impairing, the actual effects on the flight could not be determined.
Probable cause
The pilot’s failure to maintain airplane control while maneuvering in high wind conditions and his failure to adjust the trim appropriately. Contributing to the accident was the airplane’s nonstandard modified wing configuration.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record WPR12LA442
- Event ID
- 20121001X15424
- Case number
- WPR12LA442
- 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: ca0ecb0647e2ef858ba4f821de4b401d844d00eb08a3e0f38a804c7974c87d15; retrieved 2026-09-14T15:45:22.466Z.