WPR13FA380 · Nelson KR-2
Nelson KR-2 · Accident: loss of control in flight while maneuvering
From Shoshone County Airport (KS83) to Shoshone County Airport (KS83)
Narrative check · The NTSB narrative appears to contradict this record's departure or destination. Values are shown as recorded, not corrected; compare with the narrative.
Event
- NTSB case
- WPR13FA380
- 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
Nelson KR-2
- Aircraft type
- Nelson KR-2
- 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
- N9028Q
- Operator
- John Lippis
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route Possible conflict
- From Shoshone County Airport (KS83), Kellog, IDTo Shoshone County Airport (KS83), Kellog, ID
- Aircraft age
- About 33 years (built 1980)
- 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
- 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 › Action/decision
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The experimental/amateur built airplane was being operated by the pilot as a personal local flight. The airport manager reported that, in previous conversations, the pilot had told him that he was interested in practicing spins and other maneuvers in the airplane and that he had directed the pilot to a known practice area for the airport. Witnesses reported seeing the airplane spiraling toward the ground in the distance, and, although they did not see the impact, they were concerned, so a search for the airplane was initiated, and the wreckage was located in the area where the airport manager had directed the pilot.
A video-recording device found in the airplane contained a digital file that captured the accident flight from taxi to impact. The video showed the pilot initiating an intentional left spin. During the first few rotations, the engine quit, and the propeller stopped turning. After several additional rotations, the spin stabilized but the airplane continued its descent about 20-degrees nose down until impact. During the descent, the pilot was observed applying various control inputs without effect.
The airplane had been modified from the original design specifications and was equipped with a heavier engine than the engine recommended by the kit manufacturer. The kit manufacturer reported that, if the airplane was built to the manufacturer's specification and engine recommendation, the airplane had spin and recovery characteristics similar to low-wing airplanes. However, due to the modifications on the accident airplane, the spin characteristics were unknown. Regardless, the airplane had not been test flown for spins.
Probable cause
The pilot’s decision to intentionally enter a spin in the airplane, which had unknown spin characteristics due to the engine modification, from which he was unable to recover.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record WPR13FA380
- Event ID
- 20130820X12942
- Case number
- WPR13FA380
- 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 2013-08-19.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 6c1fbfa95ba1f61e931e720e562108538ff10f2a7ec4dd9ab5aeddb0553c1f81; retrieved 2026-09-14T16:02:37.757Z.