ERA15LA087 · MDS Fying LLC ZENITH ZODIAC CH 650
MDS Flying MDS Fying LLC ZENITH ZODIAC CH 650 · Accident: loss of control in flight on approach
From Treasure Coast International Airport (FPR) to Treasure Coast International Airport (FPR)
Event
- NTSB case
- ERA15LA087
- 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
- 0 · 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
MDS Fying LLC ZENITH ZODIAC CH 650
- Aircraft type
- MDS Fying ZENITH ZODIAC CH 650
- 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
- N419PE
- Operator
- MDS Flying
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Treasure Coast International Airport (FPR), Fort Pierce, FLTo Treasure Coast International Airport (FPR), Fort Pierce, FL
- Aircraft age
- Built the same year (2014)
- 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
- 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 handling/service
- Aircraft › Aircraft oper/perf/capability
- Aircraft › Aircraft structures
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The private pilot conducted a preflight inspection of the experimental amateur-built airplane, and before the engine run-up, he locked the canopy by pushing the two canopy latches forward against the latch bolts. The pilot also verified the locked position of the canopy again before departing for a local flight, during which he planned to perform several touch-and-go landings. He reported that there were no in-flight abnormalities, but on short final approach for landing, the canopy unexpectedly opened. The airplane pitched nose down, and the pilot attempted to correct the abrupt maneuver by applying engine power and pulling back on the control stick; however, the airplane continued to descend and impacted the ground in a nose-down attitude.
Postaccident examination of the airplane revealed that the cockpit canopy's locking system had been modified from the design provided by the airframe kit manufacturer. Functional testing revealed that the canopy latching mechanism was difficult to operate and to close fully and lacked a positive indication for determining if it was securely closed and locked. It is likely that, during the accident flight, while on final approach to land, the inadequate modification to the canopy latching mechanism allowed the canopy to open in flight, which rendered the airplane uncontrollable.
Probable cause
The inadequate modification of the airplane’s canopy latching mechanism, which resulted in the inadvertent opening of the canopy while on final approach to land and a subsequent loss of pitch control.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ERA15LA087
- Event ID
- 20141231X81005
- Case number
- ERA15LA087
- 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: 83c5617d71c5af0ebaeb9098c3dc98939f82a355b15d2d38f6907b261203623e; retrieved 2026-09-16T02:00:21.079Z.