Sea & Sky Inc Dba Krucker Acft CYGNET N59AT accident near Panama City Beach, Florida

Probable cause

The pilot's loss of aircraft control, which resulted in an aerodynamic stall.

NTSB analysis

The commercial airplane pilot reported that, during his first solo flight in his new weight-shift-controlled aircraft, he experienced an unstable feeling when he started a right turn. While attempting to roll the aircraft straight and level, it rolled into an uncontrollable, "steep" left turn and entered an aerodynamic stall before crashing into the water below. It is likely that when the pilot attempted to correct the initial roll to the right, the aircraft rolled past 90° of bank, to a condition where the pendulum stability, which kept the fuselage below the wing, ceased to act, resulting in the loss of control. Postaccident examination of the aircraft revealed that several of the hardware components attaching the wing to the trike had fractured; however, examination of the fractures revealed that they all exhibited features consistent with overstress due to impact, and no evidence of preexisting damage was observed.

Text from the NTSB. Open the NTSB docket for ERA15LA230 for the full record.