FlightFollowerFatal Stall at 15,000 Feet: Hawker 800XP Spirals Out of Control During Test Flight
Accident facts and aircraft context
On 16 October 2025, Hawker 800XP XA-JMR crashed near Bath, Michigan, during a post-maintenance test flight.
Three occupants were fatally injured. The aircraft had undergone maintenance that included work on the wing leading edges before the test flight.
The NTSB investigation remained open and the documented record was preliminary.
Purpose of the flight
Post-maintenance test flight required before the aircraft returned to service.
Flight sequence and key events
Three people were aboard: the captain, the co-pilot, and a maintenance representative.
About twenty minutes later the airplane was destroyed when it struck wooded terrain near Bath Township, Michigan.
All three — Rodolfo Pimentel Zamora, 50, Francisco del Moral Jimenez, 55, and Alvaro Espejo Javier Rodriguez, 69 — were Mexican citizens, the primary crew who had flown this exact aircraft for years.
The Hawker had been at Duncan Aviation's Battle Creek facility since March 2025 for maintenance that included removing the wing leading edges to address cracks and corrosion — work that, once complete, legally required a stall-test flight before the airplane could return to passenger service.
Duncan Aviation had a list of specialized test pilots available for hire for exactly this kind of flight.
The crew chose to perform it themselves instead.
After departure the crew requested and received a block altitude between 14,000 and 16,000 feet, leveling at 15,000.
At 17:27 local time the airplane began a rapid, uncontrolled descent.
The aircraft covered the distance from cruise altitude to the ground in about thirty seconds — a rate of descent consistent with a stall the crew never recovered from.
The Hawker 800XP's Pilot's Operating Handbook is explicit on this exact hazard: the aircraft provides no natural aerodynamic stall warning or buffet before the stall itself.
That absence of warning is precisely why stall testing after leading-edge maintenance is required — to confirm nothing about the wing's aerodynamic behavior changed during the repair — and precisely why the manual calls for pilots specifically trained and current in the maneuver to fly it.
What's already documented — the radar track, the final radio call, the wreckage examination — establishes that the airplane entered a stall from which the crew could not recover, on a flight that existed solely to verify the aircraft could handle exactly this kind of maneuver safely.
Investigation findings
The NTSB noted this was the second Hawker crash in two years during a post-maintenance stall test.
The NTSB investigation (ANC26FA002) remains open; only a preliminary report has been released so far.
The cockpit voice recorder was recovered and sent to the NTSB's vehicle recorder laboratory in Washington, D.C., with results still pending at last report.
The Hawker test flight reached the planned test altitude before the stall sequence and subsequent loss of control. The three fatalities are confirmed, while the final explanation for how the test developed into the fatal spin remains subject to the investigation.
How the event developed
The aircraft entered the planned stall-test sequence during a post-maintenance test flight and then lost control. The investigation had not yet established the specific reason the stall became unrecoverable.
What the record establishes
No final probable cause has been established in the preliminary NTSB record. The aircraft lost control during a post-maintenance stall-test flight.
What the evidence shows
The aircraft reached the planned test altitude and entered the stall-test sequence, but the subsequent loss of control remained under investigation. The preliminary record does not yet establish the specific mechanism or human factor that made the event fatal.
- Incident date
- On October 16, 2025, a Mexican-registered Hawker 800XP (XA-JMR) crashed near Bat
- Aircraft / registration
- Hawker 800XP — XA-JMR
- Investigation status
- NTSB preliminary investigation ANC26FA002