WPR22FA350 · Aerovodochody L-29 DELFIN
Aerovodochody L-29 DELFIN · Accident: loss of control in flight while maneuvering
Event
- NTSB case
- WPR22FA350
- 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
- 1 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- 0
- 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
Aerovodochody L-29 DELFIN
- Aircraft type
- Aerovodochody L-29
- 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
- N129MM
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo not recorded
- Aircraft age
- About 54 years (built 1968)
- 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 · low-altitude flying
- 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
- Destroyed
Cause areas
- Personnel issues › Physical
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 of the accident airplane was participating in a closed-course air race and was varying between first and second place. During the 3rd lap of 6, the accident airplane began a climb as it neared outer pylon No. 4, where it appeared to tighten its left turn toward the inner portion of the racecourse. At the peak of the climb, the airplane entered an approximate 90° right bank and started a descent before it rolled left to an approximate 90° left bank. The airplane continued to descend in a steep left bank and nose-low attitude until it impacted terrain just beyond outer pylon No. 5.
Postaccident examination of the airplane revealed no evidence of any preexisting mechanical malfunction that would have precluded normal operation.
As the airplane rolled 90° right and pitched up, followed by a 180° left roll and descent, the pilot’s lack of control inputs following the roll indicated that the pilot likely experienced an onset of higher G loads during the left roll, which ultimately led to G-induced loss of consciousness (G-LOC). The reason for the pilot’s initial roll to the right is unknown; however, it’s likely that the pilot’s aggressive roll to the left was an effort to maintain his position in the race. It is possible that the pilot’s coronary artery disease and/or amlodipine use may have reduced his G-tolerance; however, the investigation was unable to determine if the pilot’s medical conditions or medication use contributed to the accident.
Probable cause
The pilot’s in-flight incapacitation due to G-induced loss of consciousness, which resulted in a subsequent impact with terrain.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record WPR22FA350
- Event ID
- 20220919105962
- Case number
- WPR22FA350
- 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: 8dfd54fe2a08608eae804b40ce87562f8dda3e1a2d8bf5f6bb7a163b7822e4c1; retrieved 2026-09-15T07:51:23.667Z.