PILOT AND INSTRUCTOR DIE IN FIERY CRASH

  • Published
  • By National Transportation Safety Board
Ama, La. --  According to a National Transportation Safety Board report released in April, a pilot's failure to maintain directional control during takeoff led to a fiery crash of a Brown RV-6 light aircraft that killed both the pilot and his instructor in Ama, La., Aug. 23.

The instructor pilot was a 42-year-old lieutenant colonel and commander of Air Force Reserve Officer Training Corps Detachment 320 at Tulane University in New Orleans. The civilian pilot, 61, held a private pilot certificate with an airplane single-engine land rating, board officials said.

Local law enforcement officials said witnesses reported that the pilot had been anxious about flying the privately-owned, home-built airplane and had even frozen at the controls. So he elected to hire a flight instructor for further training.

According to the safety board report, the airplane initiated a takeoff roll at St. Charles Airport, a private airstrip, and shortly thereafter veered off of the runway to the left. Neither pilot was able to get the aircraft under control and applied full brakes as noted by the long skid marks. The airplane then struck several trees head-on at 30 to 35 mph, trapping both men inside, and was immediately engulfed in flames. An examination of the airplane, engine and related systems revealed no anomalies that would have affected the takeoff, the report said.

The New Orleans Coroner's Office performed autopsies on the pilots and determined both had survived the initial impact. The autopsy reports concluded that the cause of death was "partial incineration from fire secondary to (the) airplane crash."

The lieutenant colonel was a certified military and civilian flight instructor and a command pilot with more than 3,700 hours flying both military and civilian aircraft.

"A recent change in FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) regulations enhances the opportunity for Air Force instructor pilots to attain FAA certified flight instructor certificates and provide flight training to civilians," according to Col. John W. Blumentritt, Air Education and Training Command director of safety. "And while this opportunity may be used as a hobby, part-time job or post-Air Force career, the military flight safety culture that is bred into our professional aviators must be carried into this realm."