Fisher CELEBRITY N8205H

Summary

On 8 June 2002 at about 14:30 local time, a Fisher CELEBRITY registered N8205H was involved in an accident near Chandler, Arizona, 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

8 June 2002 at 14:30

Classification

Accident

Location

Chandler, Arizona, United States

Coordinates

33.2053, -111.7525

Aircraft

Fisher CELEBRITY

Registration

N8205H

Category

Airplane

Engines

1

Operator

Not recorded

Operating rule

Part 91: General Aviation

Purpose of flight

Personal

Phase of flight

Not recorded

Route

Chandler → Unknown

Aircraft damage

Destroyed

Weather

VMC

Light

Day

NTSB number

LAX02FA188

2 people died.

failure of the wing spars and the in-flight separation of the aircraft wing due to the builder's inadequate manufacture of this experimental aircraft. Also causal was the current owner/pilot's continued flight with known mechanical discrepancies.

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

Read the full NTSB narrative

During cruise flight, both of the left wings of the amateur built experimental biplane separated in flight. The airplane fuselage was a metal frame, and the empennage and wings were fabric covered wood. The pilot had contacted a friend, who was also constructing a Celebrity, a few weeks before the accident concerning loose fabric on the airplane's wings. The friend told the pilot not to fly the airplane until the loose fabric issue had been addressed. According to the friend, the pilot washed the airplane, let it dry in the sun, and noted that the loose fabric tightened up. The pilot believed that the loose fabric issue had been resolved. Various wing components were examined and compared with the building instructions and plan drawings. The examination revealed fracture features indicating that the wings failed in a positive overload event. No evidence of preexisting cracks or deteriorated wood was found. However, the comparison with the design revealed that the construction of the spars did not comply with their design drawings. In particular, the spars did not contain stiffener blocks adjacent to the upper and lower caps, and the filler blocks ended abruptly in a vertical line instead of tapering to the upper and lower caps. The filler blocks were thinner than specified in the plans and occupied 50 percent of the space between the spar caps instead of all the void. The filler blocks were also shorter than plan specification and did not taper according to the plan. Both of these conditions would reduce the load carrying capacity of the wing, especially in compression. The failure location was primarily at the outboard end of the filler blocks. No material defects were found during the examination.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record.