ERA23LA334 · Scoda Aeronautica Ltda SUPER PETREL LS
Scoda Aeronautica Ltda SUPER PETREL LS · Accident: low altitude operation/event while maneuvering
From Hickory Regional Airport (HKY) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- ERA23LA334
- 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
- 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
Scoda Aeronautica Ltda SUPER PETREL LS
- Aircraft type
- Scoda Aeronautica Ltda SUPER PETREL LS
- 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
- N239WD
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Hickory Regional Airport (HKY), Hickory, NCTo not recorded
- Aircraft age
- About 1 year (built 2022)
- 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
- Low altitude operation/event
- 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
- Wire
- 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 › Psychological
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The private pilot/owner and the student pilot/passenger departed in the amphibious airplane and flew to a local lake where they were observed conducting a touch-and-go landing and flying low over the water. One witness, who was on his boat dock about 100 yards from a set of energized powerlines that spanned the lake, reported that the airplane was flying level about 100 to 200 ft above the water toward the powerlines. As the airplane approached the powerlines, it appeared to take a sudden nose-down attitude before it impacted the powerlines. There was a large explosion and the airplane impacted the water. The collision also resulted in a electrical power outage to the surrounding community. Postaccident examination of the airplane revealed impact signatures consistent with impact with the powerlines and no evidence of any mechanical deficiencies or malfunctions that would have precluded normal operation. Based on the witness’ observations, the pilot likely observed the powerlines and attempted to maneuver underneath them. The airplane then struck the powerlines, lost control, and impacted the lake.
Probable cause
The pilot’s failure to maintain clearance from powerlines while maneuvering at a low altitude over water, which resulted in a collision and loss of control.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ERA23LA334
- Event ID
- 20230813192853
- Case number
- ERA23LA334
- 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: 4117b11d3c88bc85a5dc05ce6bb2b171f0db28e607faa4338d228fb32cd90a11; retrieved 2026-09-15T08:04:50.660Z.