Howard Pardue Crash Update: Low-Level Acro on Departure

Isabel Goyer

Tuesday, April 10, 2012 at 10:10 PM ET

Verified

** Howard Pardue and his Grumman F8F Bearcat**

Key Takeaways:

Well-known air racer Howard Pardue died in the crash of his F8F Bearcat in Breckenridge, Texas, during an attempted aerobatic maneuver.
The NTSB's preliminary report indicates that a planned "Half Cuban Eight" maneuver went wrong after the aircraft leveled out inverted, leading to a sudden roll and an unrecoverable vertical descent.
Witnesses described the final portion of the maneuver as a split-S from which the airplane could not recover before impacting the terrain.
The NTSB has not yet reached any conclusions regarding the probable cause of the crash in this preliminary report.

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The ** crash of an F8F Bearcat** at Breckenridge, Texas, last week that claimed the life of well known air racer and airshow performer Howard Pardue came during an abortive aerobatic maneuver. According the NTSB’s preliminary report on the crash, Pardue was executing a low-level manuever that somehow went terribly wrong.

A witness, a pilot who was waiting to take off behind Pardue, described the chain of events to investigators. Pardue “reportedly announced over the radio that he was going to perform a Half Cuban Eight aerobatic maneuver after takeoff and then overfly the runway in the opposite direction,” according to the NTSB report.