CEN15LA428 · Sukhoi SU-26
Sukhoi SU-26 · Accident: loss of control in flight while maneuvering
From Lillian M Hudspeth Memorial Hospital Helipad (XA68) to Lillian M Hudspeth Memorial Hospital Helipad (XA68)
Event
- NTSB case
- CEN15LA428
- 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
Sukhoi SU-26
- Aircraft type
- Sukhoi SU-26
- 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
- N596TJ
- Operator
- JT Airshows
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Lillian M Hudspeth Memorial Hospital Helipad (XA68), Slidell, TXTo Lillian M Hudspeth Memorial Hospital Helipad (XA68), Slidell, TX
- Aircraft age
- About 26 years (built 1989)
- 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
- Destroyed
Cause areas
- Aircraft › Aircraft oper/perf/capability
- Personnel issues › Action/decision
- Personnel issues › Task performance
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The airline transport pilot reported that he had been practicing aerobatic maneuvers for an upcoming airshow. He could not recall the events leading up to the accident. Based on the impact scars in the field, it was determined that the airplane struck the ground in a slightly nose-high, wings-level attitude. No mechanical defects with the airplane or engine were noted. It is likely that the pilot conducted an aerobatic maneuver and attempted to recover from it at too low of an altitude for a safe recovery.
Probable cause
The pilot's attempt to recover from an aerobatic maneuver at too low of an altitude to make a safe recovery.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CEN15LA428
- Event ID
- 20150928X15507
- Case number
- CEN15LA428
- 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. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 2015-09-28.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 353bafe0c137473688a33207afb9fc0904fde40a36a9e1542ceb1cf74371b655; retrieved 2026-09-16T02:49:45.423Z.