CEN16FA307 · Wilson BUGATTI-DEMONGE 100P
Wilson BUGATTI-DEMONGE 100P · Accident: loss of control in flight during takeoff
From Clinton Sherman Airport (CSM) to Clinton Sherman Airport (CSM)
Event
- NTSB case
- CEN16FA307
- 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
Wilson BUGATTI-DEMONGE 100P
- Aircraft type
- Wilson BUGATTI-DEMONGE 100P
- 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
- N110PX
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Clinton Sherman Airport (CSM), Burns Flat, OKTo Clinton Sherman Airport (CSM), Burns Flat, OK
- Aircraft age
- About 1 year (built 2015)
- 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
- Takeoff
- 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 › Task performance
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The airline transport pilot departed from a 13,500 ft long runway with a right quartering headwind present on a local test flight in an experimental, amateur-built, twin-engine airplane, which was a replica of a 1930s-era air racer. During the initial climb after takeoff , the airplane entered a right bank followed by a left bank. The left bank increased, and the airplane entered a nose-low descent that continued until it impacted terrain in an inverted attitude.
The airplane was equipped with several onboard cameras that captured video footage of the accident flight. The video revealed that the left/forward engine began surging after liftoff and reached its maximum operating speed (red line) twice during the short flight. Although the pilot attempted to control the forward engine rpm with the throttle lever, the throttle inputs had no apparent effect. Based on the design of the propeller drive train, it is a possibility that the forward engine clutch was slipping. The airplane's airspeed decreased below its design stall speed and the angle of attack increased; the airplane then rolled left and subsequently impacted the ground. A postaccident examination of the airplane did not reveal any preimpact flight control anomalies. Examination of the engines did not identify a reason for the surging of the forward engine or slipping of the clutch. The sequence of events as described by witness statements and the onboard video was consistent with a loss of airspeed following an engine anomaly and a subsequent aerodynamic stall.
Toxicological testing revealed alcohols were present in samples taken during the autopsy. Given the putrefaction of the samples, it is likely that all detected alcohols were the result of postmortem production.
Terrain from the accident site to one quarter mile north of the accident site was suitable for an emergency landing there.
Probable cause
The pilot's failure to maintain airspeed following an engine anomaly during the initial climb after takeoff, which resulted in the airplane exceeding its critical angle of attack and experiencing an aerodynamic stall. Contributing to the accident was an engine anomaly, the reason for which could not be identified during postaccident examination.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CEN16FA307
- Event ID
- 20160806X23345
- Case number
- CEN16FA307
- 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: 435224ad90adf0081825ca528616147c91eae32b7aff069572db027524a6390f; retrieved 2026-09-14T21:58:04.649Z.