Pitts 11 N11PU

Summary

On 18 September 1999 at about 15:20 local time, a Pitts 11 registered N11PU, operated by Noble, James, K., was involved in an accident near Iona, Idaho, United States. One person was on board and one died. The aircraft was destroyed. The NTSB has published a probable cause for this accident; it is quoted in full below.

Date

18 September 1999 at 15:20

Classification

Accident

Location

Iona, Idaho, United States

Coordinates

43.5201, -111.9301

Aircraft

Pitts 11

Registration

N11PU

Category

Airplane

Engines

1

Operator

Noble, James, K.

Operating rule

Part 91: General Aviation

Purpose of flight

Personal

Phase of flight

Not recorded

Route

Idaho Falls → Unknown

Aircraft damage

Destroyed

Weather

VMC

Light

Day

NTSB number

SEA99LA166

1 person died.

The pilot-in-command's delayed recovery from a snap roll. A contributing factor was the low altitude at which the maneuver was initiated.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record. This site does not paraphrase or interpret it.

Read the full NTSB narrative

A videotape of the accident showed the aircraft successfully completing a series of two counter-clockwise aileron rolls, immediately followed by two clockwise snap rolls. During the second run of maneuvers, initiated from an approximate altitude of 100-200 feet AGL, the aircraft recovered from the final snap roll in a 90 degree right-wing down, nose low attitude rather than the wings level attitude of the previous maneuver. One to two seconds later, the aircraft returned to a wings-level attitude having lost approximately half of its available altitude. The nose pitched back to a flat attitude and the aircraft impacted the ground. The aircraft's engine was heard to rev on the tape about a second after the impact.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record.