ERA18LA119 · Ames Angier M LNC2
Ames Angier M LNC2 · Accident: loss of control in flight en route
From Stella Maris Airport (MYLS) to Treasure Coast International Airport (FPR)
Narrative check · The NTSB narrative appears to contradict this record's location. Values are shown as recorded, not corrected; compare with the narrative.
Event
- NTSB case
- ERA18LA119
- 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
- 2 · 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
Ames Angier M LNC2
- Aircraft type
- Ames Angier LNC2
- 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
- N4ZQ
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Stella Maris Airport (MYLS), Stella MarisTo Treasure Coast International Airport (FPR), Fort Pierce, FL
- Aircraft age
- About 6 years (built 2012)
- 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
- En route · cruise
- 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 › Conditions/weather/phenomena
- Personnel issues › Psychological
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot did not receive an official weather briefing before beginning the instrument flight rules cross-country flight. While en route to the destination airport and as the airplane was descending, the pilot was advised of areas of moderate-to-heavy precipitation at the airplane's eleven-to-one-o'clock position. The pilot acknowledged this information, continued the airplane's descent, and maintained the airplane's heading. The pilot initiated a turn, and the controller asked the pilot if he was deviating to avoid the precipitation. The pilot replied that he was not deviating but that he could use a 10° turn to the left. No further communications were received from the pilot. A review of radar data for the flight revealed that the pilot made a 90° left turn and then flew straight for about 1 minute before radar contact was lost. A review of the airplane's radar track overlaid on weather radar plots surrounding the time of the accident revealed that the airplane flew into an area of moderate-to-heavy precipitation.
An Alert Notice (ALNOT) was issued, and airplane debris was located about 10 miles north of the airplane's last radar-observed location. Fragments of the wings, fuselage, and empennage were recovered, but no other parts of the airplane were located.
According to a witness statement and a review of weather data, the pilot likely entered instrument meteorological conditions just before the time of the accident and lost control of the airplane shortly after encountering the moderate-to-heavy precipitation in the area at the time. Even though the pilot was operating the airplane on an instrument flight rules flight plan, it is likely that he became spatially disoriented given that he turned the airplane 90° instead of the 10° requested. Because the pilot's logbook was not recovered, his recency and proficiency of instrument experience flight could not be determined.
Toxicology results showed a low concentration of ethanol in the pilot's muscle tissue; no other samples were provided for testing. Ethanol can be produced postmortem. The amount of ethanol detected, if ingested, would not be considered impairing. Thus, the identified ethanol did not contribute to the circumstances of this accident.
Probable cause
The pilot's spatial disorientation after entering instrument meteorological conditions and encountering moderate-to-heavy precipitation, which resulted in a loss of airplane control.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ERA18LA119
- Event ID
- 20180331X11926
- Case number
- ERA18LA119
- 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: 5847f83f5e64ada32c261a61517c575e2dc630c5ea6e05ee692c4769cabe71eb; retrieved 2026-09-15T06:37:35.304Z.