ASN Wikibase Occurrence # 273534
This information is added by users of ASN. Neither ASN nor the Flight Safety Foundation are responsible for the completeness or correctness of this information.
If you feel this information is incomplete or incorrect, you can submit corrected information.
| Date: | Sunday 9 August 1998 |
| Time: | |
| Type: | Turner Super T40A |
| Owner/operator: | |
| Registration: | ZS-VGF |
| MSN: | |
| Fatalities: | Fatalities: 2 / Occupants: 2 |
| Aircraft damage: | |
| Category: | Accident |
| Location: | Ebertson Park, Brakpan -
 South Africa
|
| Phase: | |
| Nature: | |
| Departure airport: | Springs Aerodrome |
| Springs Aerodrome | |
| Investigating agency: | CAA S.A. |
| Confidence Rating: |  Accident investigation report completed and information captured |
The pilot/owner spent the afternoon cleaning his homebuilt aircraft and then decided to fly a circuit. A friend accompanied him on this flight. According to another friend monitoring the radio frequency of Springs Aerodrome the pilot transmitted that he was backtracking Runway 21 and he assumed they took off on Runway 21 at Springs Aerodrome and flew a right hand circuit. Turning onto the downwind leg the pilot experienced a thermal updraught. Also being a glider pilot , the pilot turned the aircraft towards the thermal and intercepted it. He contacted the friend on the ground at Springs Aerodrome on the friend's mobile radio and commented about the positive rate of climb of up to 500 feet per minute that he was experiencing. The friend walked out of his hanger and saw the aircraft in the distance. He stated that he saw the aircraft in what he perceived was a left-hand turn and then the aircraft entered a spiral dive. According to him the spiral seemed to tighten and it seemed that the aircraft was in a spin. The aircraft recovered from the spin, but was still at high speed in a steep spiral with a nose down attitude. He then saw some part separate from the aircraft and it disappeared from his sight. He realised the aircraft had crashed. Other witnesses closer to the accident scene provided the investigators with different versions to the manoeuvres the aircraft performed, but most of them saw the aircraft in a left-hand turn and then in different attitudes described as a loop, barrel roll, dive, etc. It could not be ascertained exactly what the manoeuvres were, but most of the witnesses agreed that a wing departed from the aircraft in the air. One witness specified that it was the left-hand wing. After this the aircraft dropped to the ground in pieces. PROBABLE CAUSE: The aircraft stalled and entered a spin during a condition where the pilot attempted to take advantage of a thermal updraft. During the recovery manoeuvre the aircraft exceeded its velocity never exceed (Vne) and was over-stressed causing the right-hand wing to fail.
Accident investigation:
 |
|
Sources:
S.A. CAA
Revision history:
| Date/time | Contributor | Updates |
|---|
Corrections or additions? ... Edit this accident description
The Aviation Safety Network is an exclusive service provided by:
Quick Links:
| ASN Home | Send Correction / Feedback |
| FSF Home | Disclaimer | Copyright |
| Contact Us | Privacy Policy |
| Press / Media |
CONNECT WITH US:
©2024 Flight Safety Foundation