Fisher Michael E CELEBRITY N70785

Summary

On 4 March 2013 at about 22:25 local time, a Fisher Michael E CELEBRITY registered N70785, operated by Michael J. Payne, was involved in an accident near Terrell, Texas, 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

4 March 2013 at 22:25

Classification

Accident

Location

Terrell, Texas, United States

Coordinates

32.6886, -96.3103

Aircraft

Fisher Michael E CELEBRITY

Registration

N70785

Category

Airplane

Engines

1

Operator

Michael J. Payne

Operating rule

Part 91: General Aviation

Purpose of flight

Personal

Phase of flight

Not recorded

Route

Mesquite → Mesquite

Aircraft damage

Destroyed

Weather

VMC

Light

Day

NTSB number

CEN13LA186

1 person died.

The pilot’s exceedance of the airplane’s design stress limits while performing aerobatic maneuvers.

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

Read the full NTSB narrative

Witnesses reported seeing the airplane performing a series of loops and rolls and then sections of the wings separating from the airplane before it descended and impacted terrain. A postaccident examination of the wreckage revealed that the wing failure initiated at the bottom of the right outboard forward wing strut. This failure allowed the right upper wing to rise, which placed an overload stress on the upper wing spar and bottom right wing. The top wing spar separated in the area left of the fuselage struts. The entire upper wing and lower right wing folded up and rearward and then separated from the airplane. All of the separations were consistent with overload failures, indicating that the pilot exceeded the airplane's design stress limits while performing aerobatic maneuvers.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record.