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Canopy rips off Sonex during flight

By NTSB · March 20, 2023 ·

The pilot was performing maintenance on his Sonex Waiex and running the engine at full throttle to verify the exhaust gas temperature was within limits.

He told investigators that after the last adjustment and anticipating another adjustment, he only latched the canopy enough to keep it in place while performing a test run on the ground.

After the test run was performed, the pilot departed the airport in Doylestown, Pennsylvania, without properly securing the canopy.

Shortly after takeoff, the canopy was “ripped off” the airplane.

While returning to the runway, the approach was too low and the airplane hit trees on short final. The airplane landed short of the runway and did “two pancakes,” resulting in substantial damage to the fuselage and firewall

Probable Cause: The pilot’s failure to maintain a proper glidepath during landing. Contributing to the accident was his failure to ensure the canopy locks were properly configured prior to flight.

NTSB Identification: 104789

To download the final report. Click here. This will trigger a PDF download to your device.

This March 2021 accident report is provided by the National Transportation Safety Board. Published as an educational tool, it is intended to help pilots learn from the misfortunes of others.

About NTSB

The National Transportation Safety Board is an independent federal agency charged by Congress with investigating every civil aviation accident in the United States and significant events in the other modes of transportation, including railroad, transit, highway, marine, pipeline, and commercial space. It determines the probable causes of accidents and issues safety recommendations aimed at preventing future occurrences.

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Comments

  1. Henry K. Cooper says

    March 21, 2023 at 6:34 am

    Did somebody say “checklist”? If so, I sure mussed it!

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