- Date
- April 13, 1984, 13:32 local (21:32 UTC)
- Place
- Mckinleyville, CA
- Injuries
- 1 fatal
- Damage
- Destroyed
- Phase of flight
- Enroute
- Aircraft
- N42273Sturges BD-5B
- Weather
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Status
- Completed
- Report
- Approved by Office Director
- FAA report
- 19840413013489A
- Case key
- 23947
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
After the acft took off, witnesses observed it enter a left turn, pitch nose up, then enter a rolling/vertical descent & impact at the edge of a surf. An exam of the wreckage & eng revealed no evidence of a preimpact/part failure or malfunction. A test plt reported that in spin tests at 10,000 ft, the acft required up to 2000 ft for recovery.
Aircraft
- Registration
- N42273
- Reported as
- Sturges BD-5B
- Category
- Airplane, amateur-built
- Serial number
- 1749
- Airframe hours
- 97
- Engine
- Honda CIVIC EB3, 70 horsepower, reciprocating
- Damage
- Destroyed
- Flight
- Personal · Part 91
- Registered owner
- John A. & Keith W. Sturges
- Airworthiness certificate
- Special, Experimental (Special)
- Last inspection
- Annual · November 24, 1982 · 27 hours before
- Departed
- ACV · Mckinleyville, CA
- Airport
- ACV · Arcata, runway 31, 5,998 × 150 ft, dirt
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
- 51
- Certificate
- Private
- Airplane ratings
- Single-engine land
- Instrument ratings
- Airplane
- Medical
- Class 3, Valid Medical--no waivers/lim.
- Seat
- Center
- Flight hours
- 507 total · 58 in this make and model · 448 as pilot in command · 4 in the last 90 days
Weather
- Conditions
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Wind
- 250° at 6 knots
- Visibility
- 50 statute miles
- Lowest ceiling
- None
- Temperature
- 61 °F, dew point 45 °F
- Altimeter
- 30.00 inHg
- Observed at
- ACV, 1 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.