ASN Wikibase Occurrence # 45532
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| Date: | Saturday 8 June 2002 |
| Time: | 07:30 |
| Type: | Fisher Celebrity |
| Owner/operator: | Private |
| Registration: | N8205H |
| MSN: | AVI001 |
| Engine model: | Continental A&C65 Series |
| Fatalities: | Fatalities: 2 / Occupants: 2 |
| Aircraft damage: | Destroyed |
| Category: | Accident |
| Location: | Chandler, AZ -
 United States of America
|
| Phase: | En route |
| Nature: | Private |
| Departure airport: | Stellar Airpark Airport, AZ (P19) |
| Investigating agency: | NTSB |
| Confidence Rating: |  Accident investigation report completed and information captured |
On June 8, 2002, about 0730 mountain standard time, a single engine experimental Fisher Celebrity biplane, N8205H, impacted flat desert terrain after the left wings separated from the fuselage near Chandler, Arizona. The airplane, owned and operated by the pilot under the provisions of 14 CFR Part 91, was destroyed. The private pilot and one passenger were fatally injured. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed for the local area flight that departed the Stellar Airpark Airport (P19), Chandler, at an unknown time. No flight plan had been filed. The flight was scheduled to terminate at P19.
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.
Probable Cause: 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.
Accident investigation:
 |
|
Sources:
NTSB: https://www.ntsb.gov/_layouts/ntsb.aviation/brief.aspx?ev_id=20020628X01001&key=1
Location
Images:
Photo: NTSB
Revision history:
| Date/time | Contributor | Updates |
|---|---|---|
| 28-Oct-2008 00:45 | ASN archive | Added |
| 21-Dec-2016 19:24 | ASN Update Bot | Updated [Time, Damage, Category, Investigating agency] |
| 09-Dec-2017 16:47 | ASN Update Bot | Updated [Source, Narrative] |
| 20-Dec-2023 19:27 | Captain Adam | Updated [Departure airport, Narrative, Accident report, Photo] |
Corrections or additions? ... Edit this accident description
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