ASN Wikibase Occurrence # 167777
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| Date: | Friday 4 July 2014 |
| Time: | 09:27 |
| Type: |  North American P-51D Mustang |
| Owner/operator: | Private |
| Registration: | N1451D |
| MSN: | 122-40986 |
| Year of manufacture: | 1944 |
| Total airframe hrs: | 2381 hours |
| Engine model: | PKRD-ROLL V1650 SERIES |
| Fatalities: | Fatalities: 2 / Occupants: 2 |
| Aircraft damage: | Substantial |
| Category: | Accident |
| Location: | near Durango-La Plata County Airport, CO -
 United States of America
|
| Phase: | Take off |
| Nature: | Training |
| Departure airport: | Durango-La Plata Airport, CO (DRO/KDRO) |
| Durango-La Plata Airport, CO (DRO/KDRO) | |
| Investigating agency: | NTSB |
| Confidence Rating: |  Accident investigation report completed and information captured |
The pilot was seated in the front seat and the flight instructor in the rear seat during an instructional flight. The pilot had not received an endorsement to fly solo in the airplane. Witnesses reported that, shortly after departure, the airplane entered a hard left bank to about 90 degrees, pitched up slightly, and then banked past 90 degrees to an inverted position. The airplane's nose then pitched down to about a 45-degree angle and then impacted terrain. The witness's description of the flight is consistent with a torque roll, which can occur after takeoff in airplanes that have a high-performance engine such as that installed in the accident airplane, and subsequent loss of control. Witnesses also indicated that the pilot typically dipped the left wing during takeoff to wave, and it is possible that the pilot did this during the accident flight and that this contributed to the torque roll. Due to the low altitude at the time of the torque roll, the flight instructor would not have had sufficient time to enter control inputs to regain control of the airplane before it impacted terrain.
Toxicology testing for the pilot detected tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the active compound in marijuana, and its inactive metabolite in his cavity blood and lung tissue. It was determined there was enough THC in the pilot's system to have been impairing, and it is likely that this led to his failure to appropriately compensate for the risk of a torque roll in the high-performance airplane.
Probable Cause: The pilot's failure to compensate for the high-performance airplane's tendency to enter a torque roll during the initial climb, which resulted in the airplane entering a torque roll and the subsequent loss of control at too low of an altitude to recover. Contributing to the pilot's failure to compensate for the airplane's tendency to enter a torque roll was his impairment from tetrahydrocannabinol.
Most unusually, this was the fourth crash of this aircraft involving either substantial damage or destruction, and the sixth and seventh occupants of the aircraft to be killed in it. Even more unusually, in the first crash of this aircraft, five people were killed inside it, a husband, wife and their three young children on the 15th June 1964. https://aviation-safety.net/wikibase/10554
Accident investigation:
 |
|
Sources:
NTSB
History of this aircraft
Other occurrences involving this aircraft
| 15 June 1964 | N1451D | Private | 5 | 10 miles E of Canyonville, near Roseburg, Oregon | |
w/o |
| 3 April 1987 | N1451D | Michael Clarke | 0 | Ashfork, AZ | |
sub |
| 4 April 1994 | N1451D | Bill Speers | 0 | Chino, California | |
sub |
Location
Revision history:
| Date/time | Contributor | Updates |
|---|---|---|
| 04-Jul-2014 18:15 | gerard57 | Added |
| 04-Jul-2014 19:43 | gerard57 | Updated [Aircraft type, Source] |
| 04-Jul-2014 19:47 | Geno | Updated [Aircraft type, Operator, Location, Departure airport, Source] |
| 04-Jul-2014 23:14 | Geno | Updated [Registration, Cn, Operator, Nature, Source] |
| 02-Aug-2014 01:17 | Geno | Updated [Time, Operator, Nature, Departure airport, Source] |
| 25-Aug-2014 20:34 | Aerossurance | Updated [Narrative] |
| 03-Sep-2016 13:57 | Aerossurance | Updated [Time, Location, Destination airport, Narrative] |
| 21-Dec-2016 19:28 | ASN Update Bot | Updated [Time, Damage, Category, Investigating agency] |
| 30-Nov-2017 18:50 | ASN Update Bot | Updated [Operator, Other fatalities, Departure airport, Destination airport, Source, Narrative] |
| 07-Apr-2024 13:26 | Saccani | Updated [Departure airport, Destination airport, Narrative] |
| 07-Apr-2024 13:26 | ASN | Updated [Cn] |
Corrections or additions? ... Edit this accident description
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