ASN Wikibase Occurrence # 342656
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| Date: | Friday 12 August 1988 |
| Time: | 15:40 |
| Type: |  Beechcraft 58P Baron |
| Owner/operator: | U.S. Forest Service |
| Registration: | |
| MSN: | |
| Fatalities: | Fatalities: 1 / Occupants: 1 |
| Aircraft damage: | Destroyed |
| Category: | Accident |
| Location: | near Lancaster, CA -
 United States of America
|
| Phase: | En route |
| Nature: | Fire fighting |
| Departure airport: | Lancaster, CA |
| Confidence Rating: |  Information is only available from news, social media or unofficial sources |
The Forest Service owned Beechcraft 58P Baron departed Ontario, California for Lancaster at 09:33 PDT and landed there at 09:53 PDT. After a briefing regarding fire tactics, this pilot relieved the leadplane currently working Lancaster at 15:00 PDT. The relieved pilot left the fire at 15:05 PDT.
The Baron then took over leadplane responsibility and was working with one airtanker on Division A, where it had already dropped half its load. The other half load was to be dropped farther down the hill.
The runs were generally southwest to northeast over heavily wooded rugged mountain terrain. During this time a helitack crewmember standing four and one half miles to the southeast, was videotaping the airtanker’s second drop.
After leading the airtanker on its second retardant run, the leadplane executed a steep pull-up left climbing turn. This is the point at which the mishap occurred.
The aircraft burned when it impacted the ground and was found in a nearly vertical nose-down attitude. The time was 15:40 PDT.
The cause of this mishap was narrowed down to one of two possibilities. Either the aircraft experienced a left engine (critical engine) malfunction while in a very steep left bank (in excess of 60 degrees) which resulted in a stall/spin or the pilot maneuvered the aircraft into an attitude (steep left bank with slow airspeed) that resulted in a stall/spin.
Sources:
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/2840945_United_States_Department_of_Agriculture_Forest_Service
Revision history:
| Date/time | Contributor | Updates |
|---|---|---|
| 31-Jul-2023 12:13 | harro | Added |
| 24-Sep-2023 05:44 | Ron Averes | Updated |
| 14-Nov-2023 04:08 | Ron Averes | Updated [Operator] |
Corrections or additions? ... Edit this accident description
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