CEN13LA034 · US Light Aircraft Corp HORNET
US Light Aircraft Corp HORNET · Accident: aerodynamic stall/spin while maneuvering
From RWJ Airpark (54T) to RWJ Airpark (54T)
Event
- NTSB case
- CEN13LA034
- 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
US Light Aircraft Corp HORNET
- Aircraft type
- Us Light HORNET
- 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
- N2482J
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From RWJ Airpark (54T), Baytown, TXTo RWJ Airpark (54T), Baytown, TX
- 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
- Aerodynamic stall/spin
- 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
A witness observed the airplane flying low over a field and reported that the occupants smiled and waved to him. The witness, who was driving a tractor, estimated that the airplane’s airspeed was about 40 mph, which was near the airplane’s reported stall speed. The witness observed the airplane maneuver over power lines before it descended to the terrain. A postimpact fire ensued and consumed most of the fuselage and left wing. At the time of the accident, wind was reported as gusty. An examination of the wreckage did not reveal any preimpact anomalies which would have precluded normal operation of the airplane. The airplane’s maneuver over power lines at a slow speed in gusty wind conditions is consistent with an aerodynamic stall; however, the airplane’s low altitude did not allow for a stall recovery.
Probable cause
The pilot’s inadequate airspeed management while maneuvering in gusty wind conditions, which resulted in an aerodynamic stall. Contributing to the accident was the airplane’s low altitude, which did not allow for a stall recovery.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CEN13LA034
- Event ID
- 20121029X21705
- Case number
- CEN13LA034
- 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: 17d6e65b540bd20ee830f976032a76f460f750aead33d2d0eeccf32862be8403; retrieved 2026-09-14T15:47:08.556Z.