Originally published at: FAA Grounds Elixir Aircraft Following Fatal Accident
Emergency airworthiness directive prohibits further flights of the French-built trainer as investigators work to determine the cause of a fatal accident.
Matt, you didn’t mention a single thing related to why the aircraft was grounded. I hate wasting my time on articles where all the important information is in the title…
I really miss the Paul Bertorelli days. The journalism quality has taken a serious dive since the publication was sold. These articles read like low-effort AI slop—shame on the contributors lending their bylines to it. Free money for them, poor reading for the rest of us.
The left flap detached.
And two factory test pilots were killed in the crash. Both these tidbits should’ve been in the original article. It took less than 30 seconds to find this information. Unfortunately as CFB73 stated, the quality of Avweb’s articles have declined substantially since it was sold. Some effort needs to be put in past just generating quantity. If there’s a crash the results in an emergency AD that grounds an entire type, it’s 100% guaranteed every pilot will want to know the details of the crash and that’s missing entirely.
From Gemini AI:
“The exact root cause of the fatal crash involving an Elixir Aircraft Model Elixir remains under official investigation by French and international aviation authorities.
However, investigators have released critical sequence-of-events findings from the accident:
In-Flight Flap Separation: According to France’s Bureau of Enquiry and Analysis for Civil Aviation Safety (BEA), the left flap detached from the aircraft during the turn to final approach for Runway 12 at Rochefort Airport.
Loss of Control: Following the structural detachment, the pilot lost control of the airframe.
Parachute Deployment: The crew deployed the aircraft’s ballistic parachute at a low altitude before it collided with the ground, resulting in the fatalities of the two test pilots.”
From France’s BEA; https://bea.aero/en/investigation-reports/notified-events/detail/accident-to-the-elixir-registered-f-wzag-on-01-10-2026-at-rochefort-charente-maritime-ad/
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