ERA13FA201 · Schoonover John D KIT FOX IV 1200
Schoonover John D KIT FOX IV 1200 · Accident: aerodynamic stall/spin on approach
From Treasure Coast Airpark (FL37) to Treasure Coast Airpark (FL37)
Event
- NTSB case
- ERA13FA201
- 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
Schoonover John D KIT FOX IV 1200
- Aircraft type
- Schoonover John KIT FOX IV 1200
- 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
- N117S
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Treasure Coast Airpark (FL37), St. Lucie, FLTo Treasure Coast Airpark (FL37), St. Lucie, FL
- Aircraft age
- About 20 years (built 1993)
- 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
- Approach · VFR pattern final
- 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
- Aircraft › Aircraft oper/perf/capability
- Personnel issues › Task performance
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
Witnesses reported that the airplane took off from runway 27, turned north, then circled back to a left downwind to land on the same runway. One witness noted that, during the downwind leg, the airplane was "very close in" to the runway and that, although the airplane had taken off in conditions that were a "little hazy," he subsequently saw the airplane "popping through clouds" on the downwind leg. Another witness reported that, during the airplane's turn toward the final approach to the runway, she saw the airplane's nose drop and then the airplane heading "straight down" before it disappeared behind a tree line. Multiple witnesses reported hearing the engine operating at a high-power level.
No preexisting mechanical anomalies were found that would have precluded normal operation. The airplane's close, downwind track and the wreckage location relative to the runway were consistent with a cross-controlled aerodynamic stall. However, the witness statement of the airplane's nose dropping straight down and the heading of the airplane at ground impact were more indicative of a straight (relatively balanced flight) aerodynamic stall.
Toxicology testing on the pilot detected low levels of the sedating antihistamine diphenhydramine and therapeutic levels of the sedating antihistamine doxylamine. The combination of the two drugs may increase side effects such as drowsiness, confusion, and memory problems, and the pilot's combined use of both drugs likely impaired his performance and contributed to the accident.
Probable cause
The pilot’s failure to maintain adequate airspeed during the turn to final, which resulted in an exceedance of the wing’s critical angle-of-attack and a subsequent aerodynamic stall. Contributing to the accident was the pilot’s combined use of two sedating antihistamines, which resulted in his impairment.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ERA13FA201
- Event ID
- 20130414X04421
- Case number
- ERA13FA201
- 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: 376a2d705a246f4128a3319a0e0b2f442abe47567125cb02552ecb9daa30ab90; retrieved 2026-09-14T15:55:31.647Z.