HELMS RICHARD LANCAIR IVP

Full Narrative

On July 30, 2025, at 1046 eastern daylight time, a Lancair IVP airplane, N49BX, was destroyed when it was involved in an accident near Greenwood, Indiana. The pilot was fatally injured. The airplane was operated as a Title 14 Code of Federal Regulations Part 91 personal flight.
ADS-B data was not available from the FAA as FAA ADS-B data relies on data received by official FAA receivers, and no data was found for the accident flight. However, preliminary ADS-B data from a commercial service that utilizes private receiver data was obtained which depicted the accident flight.
The airplane was also equipped with a Garmin G900X avionics suite which had data recording capability that captured the accident flight. The data recorded by the Garmin system ended about 13 seconds before the ADS-B data. The Garmin and ADS-B data showed that the airplane departed from runway 19 at the Indy South Greenwood Airport (HFY), Greenwood, Indiana, at 1045. After takeoff, the airplane began a climbing left turn. The turn continued for about 30 seconds when the turn radius decreased while continuing to the left. The data then showed a rapid descent to the right. The total duration of the flight from the beginning of the takeoff roll was about 1 minute 30 seconds.

Figure 1. A 3-dimensional depiction of recorded data. The red/gray path depicts data from a commercial ADS-B source. The yellow/green path depicts recorded data from the Garmin avionics.
The Garmin avionics also recorded engine parameters. The final portion of the data showed that the engine was at 38 inches of manifold pressure, 2,650 rpm, and a fuel flow of about 44.5 gallons per hour. All engine readings were steady from power application during the takeoff until the end of the recorded data.