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| Date: | Thursday 14 January 2010 |
| Time: | 14:30 |
| Type: |  Quad City Challenger II |
| Owner/operator: | Private |
| Registration: | UNREG |
| MSN: | |
| Engine model: | Rotax 582 |
| Fatalities: | Fatalities: 1 / Occupants: 1 |
| Other fatalities: | 0 |
| Aircraft damage: | Substantial |
| Category: | Accident |
| Location: | near Manatee Airport (48X), Palmetto, FL -
 United States of America
|
| Phase: | Approach |
| Nature: | Private |
| Departure airport: | Manatee Airport, FL (48X) |
| Manatee Airport, FL (48X) | |
| Investigating agency: | NTSB |
| Confidence Rating: |  Accident investigation report completed and information captured |
On January 14, 2010, about 1430 eastern standard time, an unregistered, amateur-built experimental light sport aircraft, Quad City Challenger II, impacted the ground near Airport Manatee (48X), Palmetto, Florida. The student pilot was fatally injured and the airplane was substantially damaged by impact forces and a post crash fire. The flight was operated as a personal flight under the provisions of Title 14 Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) Part 91, and no flight plan was filed. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed at the time of the accident.
According to the owner of the experimental amateur-built light sport airplane, the non-certificated accident pilot was planning to only taxi the airplane and not get airborne due to the wind conditions. The owner and several witnesses observed the airplane depart the runway and fly the prescribed runway traffic pattern. While on the base leg, the airplane began a steep bank with the nose entering a dive. The airplane subsequently impacted the ground behind a row of trees, with the engine continuing to operate at high power until ground impact. Postmortem toxicology testing was consistent with recent use of an impairing prescription narcotic medication, although the source of blood tested made it impossible to accurately estimate the time of the most recent use or the likelihood of impairment. The autopsy revealed that the pilot had an active hepatitis C infection with early evidence of liver cirrhosis. It is possible that the pilot was impaired by his recent narcotic use, by symptoms of chronic active hepatitis C infection, or by some other condition for which he was taking the prescription narcotic medication.
Probable Cause: The non-certificated pilot's failure to maintain airspeed which resulted in an inadvertent stall and subsequent impact with the ground. Contributing to the accident was his impairment due to the prescription narcotic medication he was taking.
Accident investigation:
 |
|
Sources:
NTSB ERA10LA119
https://data.ntsb.gov/Docket?ProjectID=75283
Location
Images:
Photo: NTSB
Revision history:
| Date/time | Contributor | Updates |
|---|---|---|
| 05-Oct-2022 01:50 | ASN Update Bot | Added |
| 28-Jun-2025 16:39 | Captain Adam | Updated [Time, Operator, Location, Departure airport, Destination airport, Source, Narrative, Photo, ] |
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