GAA19CA133 · Denney KITFOX IV SPEEDSTER
Denney KITFOX IV SPEEDSTER · Accident: loss of control in flight during landing
From Cal Black Memorial Airport (U96) to Buckeye Municipal Airport (BXK)
Event
- NTSB case
- GAA19CA133
- 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
Denney KITFOX IV SPEEDSTER
- Aircraft type
- Denney KITFOX IV SPEEDSTER
- 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
- N995BW
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Cal Black Memorial Airport (U96), Halls Crossing, UTTo Buckeye Municipal Airport (BXK), Buckeye, AZ
- Aircraft age
- About 16 years (built 2003)
- 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
- Landing
- 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
- Also codedOther events the NTSB coded in the sequence, such as a wire strike after a loss of power. Flight Findings uses them for its kinds of event. Glossary
- Tree(s)
- 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 oper/perf/capability
- Personnel issues › Task performance
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot reported that, while en route, he observed that his passenger was becoming ill, and he reached for the "sick bags," but he was unable to reach them due to his seat belt. He decided to make a precautionary landing on a dirt road. The pilot added that, during the landing flare, a wind gust "pushed the right wing up," the airplane drifted left, and the left wing struck a tree. The airplane rotated counterclockwise and impacted the ground.
The airplane sustained substantial damage to the fuselage and right wing.
The pilot reported that there were no preaccident mechanical failures or malfunctions with the airplane that would have precluded normal operation.
The pilot reported that the wind was from an unknown direction at 8 to 14 knots, gusting to 14 to 16 knots. An automated weather observation station located about 12 miles from the accident site reported that, about 7 minutes before the accident, the wind was variable at 3 knots. The pilot was landing the airplane to the south.
Probable cause
The pilot's failure to maintain lateral control during the landing flare, which resulted in the left wing striking a tree.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record GAA19CA133
- Event ID
- 20190209X20133
- Case number
- GAA19CA133
- 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: b767afdc740c1e056e3cf1f22338d2d8b2d81f733b3c4854b894a44c291fa542; retrieved 2026-09-16T08:35:17.751Z.