NTSB Factual Report

On July 30, 2000, about 1355 central daylight time, a Leslie Briggs Glasair III, N422CS, collided with the terrain after takeoff from the airport at Smithfield, North Carolina. The flight was operated by the pilot under the provisions of Title 14 CFR Part 91 with no flight plan filed. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed at the time of the accident. The private pilot and his pilot rated passenger were both fatally injured. The flight was on departure from Johnston County Airport, Smithfield, North Carolina, to Martin County Airport, Williamston, North Carolina, when the accident occurred.

The pilot held a private pilot certificate with single engine land, multiengine land and instrument airplane ratings. His certificate was issued on June 30, 1978, with no wavers or limitations noted. His last medical certificate, a second class, was issued March 8, 2000. It held the limitation that the pilot must wear corrective lenses in order to exercise the privileges of the airman's certificate. The pilot's total civilian hours reported on his last medical application was 3,192 hours.

The pilot rated passenger held a private pilot certificate with single engine land, and instrument airplane ratings. His certificate was issued on May 30, 2000, with no wavers or limitations noted. His last medical certificate, a third class, was issued December 1, 1998. It held the limitation that the pilot must wear corrective lenses in order to exercise the privileges of the airman's certificate. The pilot's total civilian hours reported on his last medical application was 15 hours.

The airplane was assembled and inspected on May 18, 1993, and purchased by the pilot/owner on November 21, 1998. No maintenance logs were found during the course of the investigation. According to the FAA Inspector on-scene, the airplane had a total time of 353 hours.

A witness flying in the vicinity of the airport stated that the airplane took off from runway 03 and climbed to about 500 feet above ground level. He said the airplane turned sharply to the left and then to the right and headed back towards the runway, then rolled inverted and collided with the runway surface in a 20 to 30 degree nose down attitude.

The airport manager stated that he noticed that the cockpit canopy was unlatched during the takeoff roll. He then contacted the pilot by radio. The pilot responded, but his transmission was unreadable. The aircraft made a left turn back to the runway. While making the final turn to align with runway 21, the airplane rolled to the right in a steep decent and impacted the runway.

A toxicology examination was performed by the FAA's Toxicological and Accident Research Laboratory. There was no carbon monoxide, or cyanide detected in the blood. There was no ethanol detected in the vitreous, nor were their drugs detected in the urine.

NTSB Probable Cause

The pilot's failure to maintain flying speed during an emergency landing which lead to an inadvertent stall/spin. A factor was the pilot's failure to secure the cockpit canopy prior to takeoff.