GAA18CA002 · Ultralight America SPITFIRE II
Ultralight America SPITFIRE II · Accident: loss of control in flight on approach
From Camarillo International Airport (CMA) to Camarillo International Airport (CMA)
Event
- NTSB case
- GAA18CA002
- 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
Ultralight America SPITFIRE II
- Aircraft type
- Ultralight America SPITFIRE
- 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
- N2918A
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Camarillo International Airport (CMA), Camarillo, CATo Camarillo International Airport (CMA), Camarillo, CA
- Aircraft age
- About 24 years (built 1993)
- 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 go-around
- 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
- Environmental issues › Physical environment
- Personnel issues › Action/decision
- Personnel issues › Task performance
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot reported that, during a familiarization flight, he took off and "noticed a strong left turning tendency." He added that he "kept the power at a higher, time restricted setting," which resulted in the coolant temperature rising above the 180°F maximum operating temperature.
Although there were no indications of performance degradation, he "became concerned" that the airplane could lose engine power due to overheating and decided to make a precautionary landing. During the landing, the airplane bounced, and he decided to go around. Subsequently, the airplane struck a hangar roof about 75 ft left of the runway centerline and then came to rest on the opposite side of the hangar.
The airplane sustained substantial damage to both wings and the fuselage.
The pilot reported that there were no preaccident mechanical failures or malfunctions with the airplane that would have precluded normal operation.
Probable cause
The pilot’s failure to track the runway centerline during an attempted go-around, which resulted in impact with a hangar.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record GAA18CA002
- Event ID
- 20171003X44053
- Case number
- GAA18CA002
- 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 2017-10-06.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 49a9bc0284c00ec8f82963b34b6a17fb128a64c128bf05cbeca54bb70a1a351e; retrieved 2026-09-16T05:54:40.677Z.