- Date
- January 19, 2023, 11:15 local (16:15 UTC)
- Place
- Orlando, FL
- Injuries
- 1 uninjured
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Phase of flight
- Taxi
- Aircraft
- N915KFMesafox Kitfox
- Defining event
- Taxi: Prop/jet/rotor blast/suction
- Weather
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Status
- Completed
- Report
- Approved by Office Director
- Investigation class
- Class 4 - Basic report with no Prelim publish
- NTSB office
- Eastern Region Aviation
- Parties
- FAA/FSDO
- FAA report
- 20230119001289A
- Case key
- 106617
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
An inadvertent encounter with the jet blast of another airplane while taxiing, which resulted in substantial damage to the airplane’s left wing.
Findings · 1
NTSB’s coded findings. Those marked are part of the probable cause; the rest are factors or other findings. Under each, the cases with the same finding.
Sequence of events
The events NTSB coded, in order, by phase of flight. The defining event is the one that best describes the accident. Under each, the cases with the same event anywhere in their sequence.
Analysis
The pilot was taxiing for departure at a large international airport. As he taxied from the ramp toward the taxiway that he had been cleared to take to the departure runway, the right wing of his airplane lifted. The airplane’s left wing then contacted the ground, and the airplane began to slide across the ground. In a statement following the accident, the pilot described that he had inadvertently taxied into the jet blast of an airplane that was about 500 feet away, which he was unable to see because his view was obscured by another large airplane parked on the ramp. The pilot subsequently shut his airplane’s engine down, exited the airplane, and tried to hold its wing down and keep it from contacting the ground again. He described that the jet blast made it difficult to keep the airplane from tipping over again and that he was lifted in the air several times as he tried to hold the right wing down. After serval minutes, several individuals assisted the pilot with moving the airplane out of the jet blast. The airplane’s left wing spar was substantially damaged during the accident.
Aircraft
- Registration
- N915KF
- Reported as
- Mesafox Kitfox (7 STi)
- Category
- Airplane, amateur-built
- Serial number
- KA21118495
- Built
- 2022
- Airframe hours
- 360
- Engine
- Rotax 915iS, 144 horsepower, reciprocating
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Flight
- Personal · Part 91
- Operator
- Mesafox LLC
- Registered owner
- Mesafox LLC
- Airworthiness certificate
- Special, Experimental (Special)
- Last inspection
- Condition · March 11, 2022
- Destination
- X04 · Apopka, FL
- Airport
- MCO · Orlando Intl, runway 18R, 12,004 × 200 ft, concrete
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
- 57
- Injuries
- None
- Certificates
- Flight instructor, Airline transport, Commercial
- Airplane ratings
- Single-engine sea, Multi-engine sea, Single-engine land, Multi-engine land
- Instrument ratings
- Airplane, Helicopter
- Medical
- Class 2, With waivers/limitations
- Last flight review
- June 17, 2022
- Seat
- Left
- Restraint
- 4-point
- Flight hours
- 2,907 total · 366 in this make and model · 2,776 as pilot in command · 77 in the last 90 days · 43 in the last 30 days · 0 in the last 24 hours
Weather
- Conditions
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Wind
- 180° at 13 knots
- Visibility
- 10 statute miles
- Lowest ceiling
- 25,000 ft broken
- Temperature
- 73 °F, dew point 63 °F
- Altimeter
- 30.14 inHg
- Observed at
- MCO, 1 nm away
- METAR
- KMCO 191553Z 18013KT 10SM FEW025 SCT055 BKN250 23/17 A3014 RMK AO2 SLP203 T02330167
Docket · 2
The files NTSB released with the investigation on June 15, 2023, on NTSB’s docket system: statements, records, photos and specialists’ reports. 2.9 MB in all.
FAA reports on this event · 1
The FAA’s own accident and incident reports, matched to the aircraft by N-number and date.