- Date
- January 7, 1990, 16:00 local (21:00 UTC)
- Place
- Troy, NC
- Injuries
- 1 fatal
- Damage
- Destroyed
- Phase of flight
- Maneuvering
- Aircraft
- N91089Waldron Flybaby
- Weather
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Status
- Completed · report December 15, 1992
- Report
- Approved by Office Director
- FAA report
- 19900107066139A
- Case key
- 8095
From the NTSB’s public API. By law, NTSB reports can’t be used as evidence in lawsuits over the accident.
On this page
Probable cause
Poor judgement of the non-rated pilot, due to impairment from consumption of alcohol, his lack of training/qualification, his improper use of the engine controls which resulted in loss of engine power from probable carburetor ice, and his failure to maintain sufficient airspeed which resulted in an inadvertent stall and subsequent collision with the terrain.
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
A non-rated person (with no FAA medical or plt certificate) elected to fly the home-built acft. Reportedly, the eng began to 'misfire' when the acft was over the arpt at about 1000' AGL. The plt attempted to land; however, the acft subsequently crashed in a steep dscnt near the 1600' rwy. No preimpact part failure of the acft was found. The temp & dew point were 44 & 36 deg, respectively. According to carb icing charts, conditions would have been conducive to serious carb icing. No record was found that the plt had rcvd plt training, though he had reportedly flown ultralight craft. Toxicology checks showed he had a (blood)-alcohol lvl of 0.07O%, & a urine-alcohol lvl of 0.145% (145 mg/dl).
Aircraft
- Registration
- N91089
- Reported as
- Waldron Flybaby
- Category
- Airplane, amateur-built
- Serial number
- 75-5
- Engine
- Franklin 4AC-199, reciprocating
- Damage
- Destroyed
- Fire
- On-Ground
- Flight
- Personal · Part 91
- Operator
- James Franklin Mcintyre
- Registered owner
- Lawrence Lee Littlefield
- Airworthiness certificate
- Special, Experimental (Special)
- Airport
- Batten
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
- 42
- Seat
- Front
- Toxicology
- Performed
Weather
- Conditions
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Wind
- Calm
- Visibility
- 10 statute miles
- Lowest ceiling
- 7,500 ft broken
- Temperature
- 45 °F, dew point 36 °F
- Altimeter
- 30.00 inHg
- Observed at
- GSO, 50 nm away
FAA reports on this event · 1
The FAA’s own accident and incident reports, matched to the aircraft by N-number and date.