CEN19FA164 · Quicksilver Sport 2S
Quicksilver Sport 2S · Accident: loss of control in flight while maneuvering
From Cecilia, LA (private airstrip) to Cecilia, LA (private airstrip)
Event
- NTSB case
- CEN19FA164
- 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
Quicksilver Sport 2S
- Aircraft type
- Quicksilver SPORT 2
- 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
- N7551V
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Cecilia, LA (private airstrip)To Cecilia, LA (private airstrip)
- Aircraft age
- About 15 years (built 2004)
- 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
- Maneuvering
- 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
- Aircraft › Aircraft oper/perf/capability
- Personnel issues › Physical
- Personnel issues › Task performance
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, not marked as estimated; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot was conducting a personal flight with a passenger when the airplane impacted trees and terrain. There were no witnesses to the accident. During the final 27 seconds of recorded GPS track data, the pilot maintained a north course, descended from 816 to 778 ft mean sea level, and decelerated to 43 mph calibrated airspeed. The aerodynamic stall speed at maximum gross weight was 38 mph. The final recorded position was about 0.5 miles south of the accident site. Although there was no GPS track data for the final portion of the flight, based on the last recorded data point and the accident location, the airplane descended about 761 ft during the final 0.5 mile of the flight. In addition to the steep descent path, the airplane impacted terrain in a nose down pitch attitude consistent with an aerodynamic stall. Postaccident examination revealed no evidence of a mechanical malfunction or failure that would have precluded normal operation of the airplane before it collided with trees and terrain.
The pilot’s autopsy did not identify any natural disease that would have contributed to the accident; however, toxicology testing detected the presence of the inactive metabolite of clonazepam in heart blood and liver tissue. Considering the half-life of clonazepam, the detected level of the inactive metabolite suggests the pilot’s use of the medication likely occurred several days before the accident; thus, it is unlikely that his use of clonazepam was a factor in the accident.
Toxicology testing also identified the sedating antihistamine diphenhydramine at a level above its therapeutic range in the pilot’s blood. Considering that postmortem redistribution of diphenhydramine may result in central levels being two-to-three times higher than peripheral levels, the circulating level was likely in the therapeutic range at the time of the accident. Diphenhydramine causes marked sedation and carries the warning that use may impair mental or physical ability required to perform potentially hazardous tasks. Thus, it is reasonable to consider diminished reaction times and flying performance attributable to the use of sedating medication. It is therefore likely that the impairing effects of diphenhydramine contributed to the accident.
Probable cause
The pilot’s failure to maintain adequate airspeed while maneuvering, which resulted in the airplane exceeding its critical angle-of-attack and an aerodynamic stall. Contributing to the accident was the pilot’s diminished reaction times and flying performance due to a sedating medication.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CEN19FA164
- Event ID
- 20190612X42055
- Case number
- CEN19FA164
- 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, cause areas. 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: 87a4549beec3cd5fed7187b95b45035b7e843aabffbe28fdb87391b6322b3959; retrieved 2026-09-15T06:59:50.511Z.