Smith KELLY-D N303SM

Summary

On 21 July 2001 at about 17:45 local time, a Smith KELLY-D registered N303SM was involved in an accident near Poplar Grove, Illinois, United States. 2 people were on board and 2 died. The aircraft was destroyed. The NTSB has published a probable cause for this accident; it is quoted in full below.

Date

21 July 2001 at 17:45

Classification

Accident

Location

Poplar Grove, Illinois, United States

Nearest airport

Poplar Grove (C77)

Coordinates

42.3601, -88.8195

Aircraft

Smith KELLY-D

Registration

N303SM

Category

Airplane

Engines

1

Operator

Not recorded

Operating rule

Part 91: General Aviation

Purpose of flight

Personal

Phase of flight

Not recorded

Route

Poplar Grove → Unknown

Aircraft damage

Destroyed

Weather

VMC

Light

Day

NTSB number

CHI01FA232

2 people died.

The right upper wing failed due to overload. A factor was the pilot performing aerobatic manuevers.

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

Read the full NTSB narrative

The amateur-built experimental biplane was destroyed when it experienced an in-flight separation of the right upper wing and spiraled into the terrain. A witness reported that he saw, "the Kelly-D airplane coming out of a maneuver of some kind. He continued west at approx. 800-1000'. He pulled up, rolled to the left (inverted) and pulled out (1/2 loop). He repeated the same maneuver going east, and as he leveled out I saw what looked like a large piece of fabric and another object leave the airplane. The fabric fell slowly the other object a little faster. The airplane continued for a couple seconds and then rolled over and spiraled into the ground." The witness reported the maneuver was smooth and that it could not have pulled more that 3.5g's during the maneuver. He reported the failure occurred as the airplane was leveling off. He reported the engine was operating during the entire flight and there was no indication of an engine problem. One of the wooden propeller blades was found bent opposite the direction of rotation, broken at the hub, and was splintered. A propeller slash was found in the dirt at the point of propeller impact. The clevis ends of the flying and landing wires were examined. Six of the jam nuts were found loose. The examination of the left front upper spar revealed that the adhesive used on the plywood doubler did not cover the entire area being bonded to the spar. The USDA Forest Products Laboratory report stated, "There was also very little penetration of the adhesive into the spar." The report stated that the right upper front and rear spars exhibited compression and tension failure surfaces.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record.