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Atlas / NTSB / ERA23LA116

NTSB CAROL · Event

Event ERA23LA116

2023-01-19 Orlando, Florida, United States Airport · MCO None 1 aircraft Status: Completed

Registry · N915KF

FAA Aircraft Registry record.

Make / Model

KITFOX KITFOX SERIES 7 STI

Year of manufacture

2022 · 1 years old at event

Engine

ROTAX 915 IS (135 hp)

Seats / Engines

2 seats · 1 engine

Last airworthiness date

20220311

ADS-B equipped

Yes — Mode-S ACAA25

Registrant of record

MESAFOX LLC

Source: FAA Aircraft Registry (releasable master file).

Aircraft involved

Probable cause & findings

An inadvertent encounter with the jet blast of another airplane while taxiing, which resulted in substantial damage to the airplane’s left wing.

Factual narrative

The pilot was taxiing for departure at a large international airport. As he taxied from the ramp toward the taxiway that he had been cleared to take to the departure runway, the right wing of his airplane lifted. The airplane’s left wing then contacted the ground, and the airplane began to slide across the ground. In a statement following the accident, the pilot described that he had inadvertently taxied into the jet blast of an airplane that was about 500 feet away, which he was unable to see because his view was obscured by another large airplane parked on the ramp. The pilot subsequently shut his airplane’s engine down, exited the airplane, and tried to hold its wing down and keep it from contacting the ground again. He described that the jet blast made it difficult to keep the airplane from tipping over again and that he was lifted in the air several times as he tried to hold the right wing down. After serval minutes, several individuals assisted the pilot with moving the airplane out of the jet blast. The airplane’s left wing spar was substantially damaged during the accident. 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).

  • Environmental issues-Physical environment-Object/animal/substance-Aircraft-Awareness of condition

Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file NTSB_2023_ERA23LA116.txt. Findings + structured fields enriched from FAA avall.mdb. Full investigation docket on data.ntsb.gov ↗.