Extra EA-300 accident near Santa Barbara, CA

On April 20, 2009, an Extra EA-300 (airplane) was involved in an accident near Santa Barbara, CA. 1 person died. Damage to the aircraft: substantial.

Date

April 20, 2009

Place

Santa Barbara, CA

Aircraft

Extra EA-300 · Airplane

Injuries

1 fatal, 0 serious, 0 minor

Damage

Substantial

Position

34.418°N, 120.017°W

NTSB ID

20090420X30037

Official records · WPR09LA203

• Public docket: reports, statements and exhibits from the investigation

Air traffic control records

• Reports from Federal Agencies - Excerpt ATC Package: Document (PDF), on ntsb.gov

NTSB summary

HISTORY OF FLIGHT On April 19, 2009, at 1728 Pacific daylight time, an Extra Flugzeugbau GMBH EA-300, N101PK, crashed about 3 miles offshore of the El Capitan State Beach, Santa Barbara, California. Otter Enterprises owned and operated the airplane under the provisions of Title 14 Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) Part 91, as a personal flight. The private pilot, the sole occupant, was killed. The airplane was substantially damaged. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed for the local area flight that had departed the Santa Barbara Municipal Airport (SBA), Santa Barbara, at 1714. No flight plan had been filed. According to a witness, he had gone outside and saw the airplane doing aerobatics over the water. He sat down and watched for about 10 minutes, and observed the airplane do a maneuver four times that he described as "flying straight up, flipping over, coming back down, and then flying straight up again." He then saw the airplane enter into a 45-degree descent toward the water, and expected the airplane to pull up again into same maneuver; however, the airplane impacted the water. From his residence, the airplane looked to be only about an inch in size, and he was not able to see a lot of detail. He also reported that it did not appear to be flying close to the water, but rather high up. The witness has viewed helicopters flying to the oil platforms, and estimated that the airplane was "four times higher than the helicopters," which flew closer to the water. The airplane was located and recovered in the El Capitan channel from a depth of about 210 feet. A private c

Probable cause

The pilot's failure to maintain clearance with terrain for undetermined reasons while performing aerobatics.

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Source: NTSB aviation accident database (US government, public domain). Findings may be preliminary or later revised by the NTSB. Not a complete global record.