League LANCAIR IV-TP accident near Sisters, OR
On April 23, 2012, a League LANCAIR IV-TP (airplane) was involved in an accident near Sisters, OR. 2 people died. Damage to the aircraft: substantial.
- Date
- April 23, 2012
- Place
- Sisters, OR
- Aircraft
- League LANCAIR IV-TP · Airplane
- Injuries
- 2 fatal, 0 serious, 0 minor
- Damage
- Substantial
- Position
- 44.218°N, 121.505°W
- NTSB ID
- 20120419X54443
Official records · WPR12FA180
- Public docket: reports, statements and exhibits from the investigation
Air traffic control records
- Audio File from Air Traffic Control: Document (PDF), on ntsb.gov
NTSB summary
HISTORY OF FLIGHT On April 23, 2012, at 1017 Pacific daylight time, an experimental League Lancair IV-TP, N66HL, departed controlled flight and broke up inflight 5 nautical miles (nm) southeast of Sisters, Oregon. The private pilot and his certified flight instructor (CFI) received fatal injuries, and the airplane, which was owned and operated by the pilot, sustained substantial damage. The local 14 Code of Federal Regulations Part 91 instructional flight, which departed Roberts Field, Redmond, Oregon, about 0950, was being operated in visual meteorological conditions. No flight plan had been filed. The purpose of the flight was for the CFI to conduct a flight review of the private pilot in his high-performance, experimental, amateur-built airplane. Flight track data recorded from the airplane's global positioning system (GPS) was extracted from the onboard Chelton multi-functional display (MFD) compact flash memory card that was recovered from the wreckage. The flight data file started at time 0948:34 and the data was captured at 1-second intervals. The data spanned from 0948:34 to 1017:20, or 28 minutes and 46 seconds. A review of the data revealed that the airplane started at Roberts Field and followed a flight path consistent with a departure from runway 10. The plot continued in that direction for about 2 nm and then reversed course temporarily heading northwest while gradually increasing in altitude from the airport's elevation of about 3,050 feet (ft) mean sea level (msl) to about 10,500 ft msl. Starting about 1008:30, the airplane made several shallow banks heading
Probable cause
The pilots’ inability to maintain control of the airplane and arrest a steep spiral dive while maneuvering for reasons that could not be determined because postaccident examination could not identify any anomalies that would have precluded normal operation prior to the inflight breakup.
More accidents in OR
- Cessna T207A, Aug 21, 1986
- Piper PA-28-180, Sep 1, 1984
- Piper PA-28RT-201, Mar 12, 1984
- Piper PA 46-310P, Apr 7, 2017
- Cessna 172, Jun 23, 2012
Browse: Oregon
Source: NTSB aviation accident database (US government, public domain). Findings may be preliminary or later revised by the NTSB. Not a complete global record.
