- Date
- September 3, 1987, 15:50 local (19:50 UTC)
- Place
- Brooks, GA
- Injuries
- 1 fatal
- Damage
- Destroyed
- Phase of flight
- Maneuvering
- Aircraft
- N11HJPitts S-1
- Weather
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Status
- Completed · report August 2, 1988
- Report
- Approved by Office Director
- FAA report
- 19870903048999A
- Case key
- 7243
From the NTSB’s public API. By law, NTSB reports can’t be used as evidence in lawsuits over the accident.
On this page
Sequence of events
NTSB’s coding before 2008: each occurrence and phase of flight, and the causes and factors under it. The codes are defined in NTSB’s coding manual.
Analysis
The acft was observed in aerobatic maneuvers near the departure airfield. The last of the series was a lomcevak maneuver, which was started at an estimated alt of 2500 to 2700 ft. a witness rprtd the acft went into an inverted flat spin, which was corrected to an inverted spin, then a normal spin. Subsequently, the acft crashed in a wooded area in a nose down attitude. Tree markings and ground damage indicated the acft was in a near vertical dscnt at the time of impact with little or no forward motion. The empennage was found twisted to the left.
Aircraft
- Registration
- N11HJ
- Reported as
- Pitts S-1
- Category
- Airplane, amateur-built
- Serial number
- 9171
- Airframe hours
- 102
- Engine
- Lycoming IO-360-B1A, 180 horsepower, reciprocating
- Damage
- Destroyed
- Flight
- Personal · Part 91
- Registered owner
- Howard W Johnston
- Airworthiness certificate
- Special, Experimental (Special)
- Last inspection
- Annual · June 22, 1987 · 1 hours before
Matched to the registry by N-number and the event date; the registry’s history has gaps, so older matches can be wrong. Compare the reported make and model.
Flight crew
As NTSB recorded them. NTSB leaves out names.
- Role
- Pilot
- Age
- 43
- Certificates
- Flight engineer, Commercial
- Airplane ratings
- Single-engine land, Multi-engine land
- Instrument ratings
- Airplane
- Medical
- Class 1, Valid Medical--w/ waivers/lim
- Seat
- Front
- Toxicology
- Performed
- Flight hours
- 15,000 total · 75 in this make and model · 12,000 as pilot in command · 150 in the last 90 days · 85 in the last 30 days · 3 in the last 24 hours
Weather
- Conditions
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Wind
- 350° at 4 knots
- Visibility
- 12 statute miles
- Lowest ceiling
- None
- Temperature
- 90 °F, dew point 54 °F
- Altimeter
- 30.00 inHg
FAA reports on this event · 1
The FAA’s own accident and incident reports, matched to the aircraft by N-number and date.