ANC16LA068 · Jeffery D Tuttle BDK Carbon Concepts
Jeffery D Tuttle BDK Carbon Concepts · Accident: system/component malfunction/failure (non-power) on approach
From Wasilla, AK to Wasilla, AK
Event
- NTSB case
- ANC16LA068
- 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
Jeffery D Tuttle BDK Carbon Concepts
- Aircraft type
- Jeffery D Tuttle BDK CARBON CONCEPTS
- 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
- N8008Z
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Wasilla, AKTo Wasilla, AK
- Aircraft age
- Not recorded
- 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 base
- 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
- System/component malfunction/failure (non-power)
- 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 structures
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The commercial pilot reported that the accident flight was the first flight in the experimental, amateur-built airplane since he had completed building it. He added that, shortly after departure, while in level cruise flight, he heard a loud "pop" and immediately saw that the left wing's leading-edge slat had buckled and distorted, which made the airplane difficult to control. While maneuvering for an emergency landing, the pilot had to make significant power adjustments to maintain control. After making a right turn to begin the approach to the airport, the right wing's leading-edge slat failed, which resulted in an almost complete loss of airplane control. Subsequently, he guided the airplane to an open road using the rudder and varying the engine power settings. The airplane struck the top of a tree before impacting the road in a nose-low attitude, which resulted in substantial damage to both wings and the fuselage.
Each wing was equipped with three carbon fiber leading-edge slats located center, inboard, and outboard. A detailed examination of the airframe and engine revealed that the right wing's leading-edge slats exhibited features consistent with compression failure of the leading edge, trailing edge bond failure, lack of adhesive in the joints, and ply bridging. In addition, the right inboard slat attachment bracket exhibited deformation patterns consistent with an overload failure. The left wing leading edge slats exhibited no leading-edge damage but had signatures consistent with resin starvation. In addition, the left attachment bracket between the inboard and center slats exhibited features consistent with an adhesive failure in the joint and a disbond at the attachment. Microscopic examination of the attachment bracket revealed a lack of adhesion, improper surface preparation, and improper adhesive thickness. No other airframe or engine anomalies were noted.
Probable cause
The structural failure of both wings’ leading-edge slats, which resulted in a loss of airplane control.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ANC16LA068
- Event ID
- 20160921X33524
- Case number
- ANC16LA068
- 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, coordinates. 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: f5f8a8c78d7a6d2c39ee9f9043a10dc951810e19b3c0cc97eb9c31e5baab3ea9; retrieved 2026-09-16T04:17:34.396Z.