- Date
- September 16, 1985, 17:40 local (Sep 17, 1985, 00:40 UTC)
- Place
- Carlsbad, CA
- Injuries
- 1 fatal
- Damage
- Destroyed
- Phase of flight
- Maneuvering
- Aircraft
- N13ASPitts S-2A
- Weather
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Status
- Completed
- Report
- Approved by Office Director
- FAA report
- 19850916076129A
- Case key
- 24837
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 completing an upright spin over the pacific ocean during the filming of a movie viewed from the spinning acft, the plt climbed his acft back to the entry alt and entered a flat inverted spin. The acft was observed to spin through its recovery alt at which the time plt radioed ' I have a problem, I have a real problem.' Neither he plt nor the acft were recovered.
Aircraft
- Registration
- N13AS
- Reported as
- Pitts S-2A
- Category
- Airplane
- Serial number
- 2120
- Airframe hours
- 547
- Engine
- Lycoming AEIO-360-A1A, 150 horsepower, reciprocating
- Damage
- Destroyed
- Flight
- Other work use · Part 91
- Registered owner
- Arthur E. Scholl
- Airworthiness certificate
- Standard, Aerobatic
- Last inspection
- Annual · June 3, 1985 · 15 hours before
- Departed
- CRQ · Carlsbad, CA
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
- 53
- Certificate
- Airline transport
- Airplane ratings
- Multi-engine land, Single-engine land
- Instrument ratings
- Airplane
- Medical
- Class 2, Valid Medical--w/ waivers/lim
- Seat
- Rear
- Flight hours
- 14,360 total · 500 in this make and model · 14,160 as pilot in command · 125 in the last 90 days · 40 in the last 30 days · 5 in the last 24 hours
Weather
- Conditions
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Wind
- 240° at 6 knots
- Visibility
- 10 statute miles
- Lowest ceiling
- 5,000 ft broken
- Altimeter
- 29.00 inHg
- Observed at
- CRQ, 5 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.