Aviation Safety

At 11:10 EST, a Bellanca 8KCAB and a Piper PA-25 collided in midair and crashed at Vansant Airport. The two occupants in the Bellanca and the pilot of the Piper suffered minor injuries. The flight instructor in the Decathlon said they were in the traffic pattern for several minutes and were on the fourth approach to Runway 7 and about 50 feet agl at the time of the accident. He said: We were on final and [the private pilot] started to pull the nose up to stretch his glide. I told him, Dont do that. Lower the nose and add power. All of a sudden there was this big clunk and I said, What are you doing? At that point I took the controls, but they stopped working. We hit the ground about…

At 10:34 PST, a homebuilt Pitts S1X crashed while performing an aerobatic routine at an airshow at Cable Airport. The pilot was killed. Witnesses said the pilot dove into the aerobatic box, performed three snap rolls to the right and recovered. The second time he entered the box, the pilot performed three snap rolls to the left, and, as he rotated about of the way around on the third to fourth snap roll, he seemed to experience what witnesses called some sort of problem. The pilot arrested the snap roll and transitioned into an upright flat spin. At that point, the pilot pulled the power back to idle. In the second turn of the spin, the airplane was about 200 to 300 feet agl. The witness…

At 07:15 PDT, a Fouga CM-170 crashed in a pasture three miles north of San Joaquin. The pilot and passenger were killed. A witness about one mile north of the accident site said the airplane performed two loops, then two rolls. As the plane was coming out of the second roll he thought something happened because the airplane went into a spin and fell like a piece of paper to the ground. Another witness about 1/4 mile southeast of the accident site said the aircraft was about 2,000 feet agl going straight down and rolling to the left. The engine noise was screaming and he estimated the aircraft continued that way for 10 seconds. Then the roll stopped and the plane began to level, however…

At about 07:48 EST, a Beech A23 crashed after takeoff from Akron Fulton International Airport, killing the pilot. A witness near the 6,337-foot runway said he saw the airplane about 10 to 15 feet above the ground and barely climbing. The mechanic who performed the airplanes last annual inspection in April 1999 said the accident pilot called him the day before the accident and said the airplane wasnt developing power. He asked the pilot what the mag drop was and the pilot replied 50 on one and 80 on the other. The mechanic then told the pilot to leave it on the ground, and he would look at the airplane on Monday….

At about 21:00 EST, a Piper PA-32R-301T was damaged as it departed Farr Field Airport. The two occupants were not injured. The pilot said the flight originated from Bedford, Mass., earlier in the day, He had kept his fuel load low and planned on a short flight to Portland to refuel prior to returning to BED. The pilot reported that when he arrived at the airport for departure it was a dark night with no moon. After takeoff, he was not aware the airplane had drifted right until he saw tree branches that were illuminated by the right wing landing light. He said he did not have sufficient time to avoid the branches and struck them. He then continued with the takeoff and landed without incident…

At 15:00 CST, a Cessna A188B lost aileron control during flight and crashed during the attempted forced landing. The pilot was seriously injured. The post-maintenance test flight originated from the Mid-Continent Airport after just receiving an annual inspection. The pilot reported to a Federal Aviation Administration inspector that he did not have aileron control and was attempting to land the aircraft in a field when the accident occurred….

At 15:00 PST, an experimental Hawker Siddeley Hunter F MK 4 lost engine power on approach to Chino, Calif. The airplane landed in a field -mile short of the airport after the pilot ejected. The pilot was seriously injured. The airplane had been issued a ferry permit to fly from Mojave, Calif., to Tulsa, Okla., for maintenance work. The owner told investigators the pilot was going to make a short stop in Chino for some maintenance work and then fly to Tulsa for further maintenance….

At about 09:02 EDT, a Canadair CL-600-2B19, operated as Comair Flight 5181, suffered a cracked windshield near Nassau, Bahamas. There were no injuries. The operator reported that, during cruise flight at flight level FL270 at .77 mach indicated airspeed, the capts windshield shattered. The cabin did not depressurize and the airplane landed without incident. The original captains window was installed when the plane was manufactured in 1996 and cracked in July 1999 after 6,879 hours and 6,565 cycles. The replacement window cracked in December 1999 after 1,236 hours and 1,068 cycles. This incident happened after 899 hours and 803 cycles. The FAA Service Difficulty Reports revealed 83 report…

At about 19:15 PDT, a Cessna 172N struck trees shortly after attempting takeoff from Lampson Field. The four occupants were not injured. The pilot said he was practicing touch-and-go landings when the engine lost power after liftoff. He put the airplane back onto the runway, but was unable to stop prior to overrunning the runway and entering a vineyard. A witness reported the flaps were down during the rotation and liftoff, but were up when she arrived at the accident site….

At 12:05 MST, an amateur-built Zodiac CH-601HDS struck terrain 2.5 miles west of Salt Lake City Municipal 2 Airport. The pilot received only minor injuries. The flight had originated just minutes before the accident. The pilot reported smoke in the cockpit and a loss of engine power shortly after takeoff. He attempted to return to the airport but crashed in an industrial storage yard….