NTSB CAROL · Event
Event CEN12LA179
Aircraft involved
Probable cause & findings
The pilot's failure to maintain airplane control while on final approach as he was executing a turn to provide spacing between his airplane and an airplane on the runway.
Factual narrative
HISTORY OF FLIGHT
On March 3, 2011, about 0840 central standard time, an experimental amateur-built Skeeter 1M airplane, N1111V, impacted terrain while on approach to runway 35L at the Clarence E Page Municipal Airport (RCE), near Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. The commercial pilot, who was the sole occupant, sustained fatal injuries. The airplane sustained substantial wing and fuselage damage. The airplane was registered to and operated by the pilot under the provisions of 14 Code of Federal Regulations Part 91 as a personal flight. Day visual flight rules (VFR) conditions prevailed for the flight, which was not operated on a VFR flight plan. The flight originated from the Cole Landing Area Airport, near Newcastle, Oklahoma, about 0800. According to statements given to a Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) inspector, the accident airplane and another airplane were flying together. The accident airplane diverted to RCE due to an issue with a loose canopy. The pilot reported on an airplane-to-airplane frequency that he wanted to land at RCE to tighten the canopy. The accident airplane was on final when an airplane was also on final approach and was about to perform a touch and go on the runway. The accident airplane was observed in about 45 degrees of bank in order to “swerve” out of the way of the airplane on final approach for the touch and go. The accident airplane was observed to be about 400 feet above the ground when it banked. The accident airplane subsequently descended and impacted terrain. The pilot from the airplane performing the touch and go stated that he did not hear any radio transmissions on the common traffic advisory frequency from any airplane in or near the traffic pattern.
PERSONNEL INFORMATION
The 92-year-old pilot held a FAA commercial pilot certificate with an airplane single engine land rating. His last FAA Third-Class medical certificate was issued on August 12, 2002. The pilot reported on the application for that medical certificate that he had accumulated 2,500 hours of total flight time and 20 hours of flight time in the six months prior to that application. He also indicated that he was taking Casodex. Casodex is a nonsteroidal antiandrogen used to treat prostate cancer.
AIRCRAFT INFORMATION
N1111V was an experimental amateur-built Skeeter 1M, low-wing, tailwheel, single engine airplane with serial number 1M. According to FAA airworthiness records, the airplane was powered by a 125-horsepower Lycoming O-290-G engine that drove a Sensenich propeller. The pilot reported that the airplane had an empty weight of 818 pounds and a maximum weight of 1,480 pounds. The airplane fuel capacity was 27 gallons. The two-place airplane was equipped with side by side seating and dual flight controls. The airplane had a reported maximum speed of 195 mph.
METEOROLOGICAL INFORMATION
At 0815, the recorded weather at RCE was: Wind 330 degrees at 4 knots; visibility 10 statute miles; sky condition clear; temperature 1 degree C; dew point -5 degrees C; altimeter 30.16 inches of mercury.
AIRPORT INFORMATION
RCE was a non-towered, city-owned airport with a field elevation of 1,354 feet above mean sea level (msl). RCE was located about 15 miles west of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Runway 35R was a 3,502-foot-long by 75-foot-wide concrete runway. Runway 35L was a 6,014-foot-long by 100-foot-wide concrete runway.
WRECKAGE AND IMPACT INFORMATION
A FAA inspector examined the wreckage on-scene. According to the inspector, the airplane’s point of impact was approximately 179 feet from the approach end of runway 35L and the final aircraft resting position was 154 feet from approach end of Runway 35L. The airplane came to rest with a heading of approximately 200 degrees. A three-foot gouge was found in the terrain approximately 180 feet from the edge of the runway. The gouge appeared to have been made by a propeller blade and the direction of the gouge was consistent with the airplane on a heading of approximately 300 degrees. The left wing was bent aft and up and was partially separated from the fuselage. The flight control surfaces were all intact and still attached to the aircraft and wings. The right and left ailerons were connected to their cockpit controls. The flaps were in a stowed position. The empennage’s flight controls were intact and connected to their control cables. No pre-impact anomalies with the engine or propeller were detected.
MEDICAL AND PATHOLOGICAL INFORMATION
An autopsy was performed on the pilot by Oklahoma’s Office of the Chief Medical Examiner. The pilot’s cause of death was listed as multiple blunt force trauma. The FAA Civil Aerospace Medical Institute prepared a Final Forensic Toxicology Accident Report. The report was negative for the tests performed. The pilot was flying his experimental home-built airplane on a cross-country flight when the canopy came loose, so he diverted to another airport to tighten the canopy. His airplane was on the downwind leg in the traffic pattern and another airplane was on final approach. Several witnesses said that when the accident airplane was on final approach in the traffic pattern, the pilot attempted to make a 180-degree turn. The pilot likely saw the other airplane on the runway, and, not knowing its intention, he attempted to add more space between his airplane and the other airplane. The accident airplane was observed about 400 feet above the ground in a 45-degree banked turn. The accident airplane subsequently descended and impacted terrain. The accident pilot did not have a current medical certificate. No preimpact anomalies were detected during a postaccident examination of the wreckage. Source: NTSB Aviation Accident Database Retrieved: 2026-02-12
NTSB Findings
Hierarchical cause / factor breakdown from the FAA bulk avdata database. Each finding tagged C (Cause) or F (Factor).
- C Personnel issues-Task performance-Use of equip/info-Aircraft control-Pilot - C
- C Aircraft-Aircraft oper/perf/capability-(general)-(general)-Not attained/maintained - C
Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file
NTSB_2012_CEN12LA179.txt.
Findings + structured fields enriched from FAA avall.mdb.
Full investigation docket on
data.ntsb.gov ↗.
Beyond the agency record
Search this event elsewhere.
Pre-filled searches into the sources where news + community discussion of aviation events lives. External sources are reported, not agency. Treat them as signal that something happened, not as fact about what happened.
Entity-clustered aviation events in the press — last 24 hr + 30-day archive.
Official agency record + docket.
Investigative docket: factual reports, photos, transcripts.
Long-running aviation incident database (Flight Safety Foundation).
Community NTSB synthesis blog — often has photos and witness reports.
Gold-standard aviation incident blog.
Aviation industry news search.
GA pilot forum — informed but rumor-prone.
GA pilot subreddit search.
Tail-number page — flight history (free tier limited).
AOPA Air Safety Institute search.
Mainstream press coverage. Recent events only.
Privacy-preserving news search.
External links open in a new tab. We don't ingest their content; we deep-link search queries.
Related research
What the literature says.
Academic papers and agency reports matching this event's aircraft type. Sourced from NASA NTRS, NTSB Safety Studies, FAA CAMI, AOPA Air Safety Institute, Embry-Riddle Scholarly Commons, arXiv, and the Semantic Scholar academic graph.
- arXiv 2024 · arXiv preprint
Sampling-Based Hierarchical Trajectory Planning for Formation Flight
Formation flight of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) poses significant challenges in terms of safety and formation keeping, particularly in cluttered environments.
- arXiv 2024 · arXiv preprint
PowerLine Unmanned Surfer (PLUS): Shape Adaptive Dynamics Development and Control Design
This paper introduces the powerline unmanned surfer (PLUS) concept to extend the limited endurance of fixed wing unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) via in-flight energy harvesting from overhead electrica…
- arXiv 2022 · arXiv preprint
Dynamics of capillary effects in spin conversion of water isomers
This work explores the dynamics of capillary effects in pure H2O excited by hydrodynamic cavitation, which has been reported to introduce a non-equilibrium state of para- and ortho- isomers of water.
- Embry-Riddle Scholarly Commons 2022 · Journal article (IJAAA)
Space Harpoon Projectile Analysis for Space Debris Capture
Space debris will become a more prevalent issue in this decade as technological advancements and greater dependencies on communications require more satellites in orbit, with some companies already ho…
- Embry-Riddle Scholarly Commons 2019 · Journal article (IJAAA)
Ultrafine aluminium: Quench collection of agglomerates
Combustion of aluminized solid propellants exhibits phenomena associated with accumulation, agglomeration, ignition, and combustion of ultra-fine aluminium particles.
- Embry-Riddle Scholarly Commons 2018 · Journal article (IJAAA)
Application of artificial neural networks for the prediction of aluminium agglomeration processes
Aluminium is universal and vital constituent in composite propellants and typically used to improve performance. Aluminum agglomeration takes place on the burning surface of aluminized propellants, wh…
Browse the full corpus — academia portal ↗