MIA94LA180
1994-07-19 · LUTZ, Florida, United States · None · 1 aircraft · Status: Completed
Airport X05
Current FAA registration · N9354E
- Make / Model
- AERONCA 11AC
- Year of manufacture
- 1946 · 48 years old at event
- Engine
- CONT MOTOR A&C65 SERIES (65 hp)
- Seats / Engines
- 2 seats · 1 engine
- Last airworthiness date
- 19561210
- ADS-B equipped
- Yes — Mode-S ACFB25
Source: FAA Aircraft Registry (releasable master file).
Aircraft involved
Probable cause & findings
The certified flight instructor's improper supervision of the student pilot during a wheel landing resulting in an on ground loss of control (inadvertent ground loop). Contributing to the accident was the student pilot's improper use of flight controls and throttle during the landing rollout.
Factual narrative
On July 19,1994, about 1430 eastern daylight time, N9354E, an Aeronca 11AC, registered to the student pilot, Victor Bertheldorf, crashed on landing attempt at Lutz, Florida, while on a 14 CFR Part 91 instructional flight. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed at the time and no flight plan was filed. The airplane was substantially damaged and the student and instructor reported no injuries. The local flight originated about 45 minutes earlier. The student pilot stated he was on an instructional flight with his certified flight instructor (CFI). He was making a wheel landing to runway 36 with a slight cross wind from the east. On landing rollout the tail of the airplane started to move to the left. He applied rudder and power and felt the CFI get on the flight controls. The airplane ground looped before he or the CFI could correct the situation. The student pilot was making a wheel landing with a slight cross wind. On landing rollout the tail started to go to the left. The student pilot applied rudder and throttle, and felt the certified flight instructor get on the flight controls. The airplane ground looped before either pilot could correct the situation. Source: NTSB Aviation Accident Database (Pre-2008 Archive) Retrieved: 2026-02-12
Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file
NTSB_1994_MIA94LA180.txt.
Findings + structured fields enriched from FAA avall.mdb.
Full investigation docket on
data.ntsb.gov ↗.
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Related research
Matched on aircraft type or causal vocabulary (loss of control). All research papers
- Embry-Riddle Scholarly Commons 2025 · Journal article (JAAER) A Scoping Review of Aviation Loss of Control Inflight Research
Loss of control – inflight (LOC-I) contributes to aircraft accidents at unacceptably high rates. Significant industry efforts and research have aimed to improve LOC-I prevention, detection, and recove…
- SKYbrary (Eurocontrol) 2024 · SKYbrary article Loss of Control In-Flight (LOC-I) — SKYbrary Knowledge Base
SKYbrary comprehensive knowledge-base entry on Loss of Control In-Flight — definitions, contributing factors, accident case studies (Air France 447, Colgan 3407), and prevention strategies.
- Semantic Scholar 2024 · Article (International Conference on Networking and Services) Risk Assessment of Loss of Control In-Flight Trajectories for Urban Air Mobility Safety
In Urban Air Mobility (UAM), maintaining a minimum separation between aircraft is a safety requirement, which becomes challenging amidst congested air traffic and off-nominal conditions, such as Loss …
- NTSB Aircraft Accident Reports 2022 · Accident report Loss of Control on Takeoff in Icing Conditions — Citation 560XL
Cessna Citation 560XL fatal takeoff icing accident, March 2018. Investigation of a Citation 560XL loss-of-control takeoff accident in icing conditions.
- Semantic Scholar 2021 · Article (Aviation) ANALYSIS OF GENERAL AVIATION FIXED-WING AIRCRAFT ACCIDENTS INVOLVING INFLIGHT LOSS OF CONTROL USING A STATE-BASED APPROACH
Inflight loss of control (LOC-I) is a significant cause of General Aviation (GA) fixed-wing aircraft accidents. The United States National Transportation Safety Board’s database provides a rich source…
- NASA NTRS 2021 · Presentation Use of Design of Experiments in Determining Neural Network Architectures for Loss of Control Detection
Abstract—We describe empirical methods for selecting a neural network architecture to implement belief state inference on generic commercial transport aircraft.