The airline transport pilot was departing on a personal local flight in his Mooney M20M when the engine lost total power.
Review of security video at the airport in Worcester, Mass., revealed that, after takeoff, the airplane reached an altitude of about 200 feet before turning right and reversing direction.
The airplane subsequently stalled, rolled to the right, and descended uncontrolled into trees. The pilot died in the crash.
According to investigators, it is likely that the pilot reversed direction to return to the airport but failed to maintain adequate airspeed while maneuvering, which resulted in the airplane exceeding its critical angle of attack, an aerodynamic stall, and loss of control.
Examination of the engine revealed that the crankshaft had failed due to fatigue cracking between the No. 5 and No. 6 cheeks. The cracking pattern suggested that numerous overstress conditions of relatively short durations acted to initiate the fatigue cracks, but the cause for this overstress could not be determined.
Probable cause: A total loss of engine power during the initial climb due to a fatigue failure of the engine’s crankshaft. Contributing to the accident was the pilot’s failure to maintain control of the airplane, which resulted in an aerodynamic stall.
NTSB Identification: ERA16FA023
This October 2015 accident report is provided by the National Transportation Safety Board. Published as an educational tool, it is intended to help pilots learn from the misfortunes of others.
Dont fly the runway heading. Do what gliders pilots know, fly out at 45 degrees. Airport patterns need to change. It would not have solved this particular situation but it does solve where Pilots have to turn around and only have half the runway to use.
You assume non-towered airports. You have to get permission from ATC to make a turn after takeoff since they asssume you will fly the runway heading unless and until given permission to do otherwise.
So our task, if we choose to accept it is to LEARN from this highly trained CP…and land straight ahead if below xxx’, with only a small turn to rt or lft if below yyy’, only attempt the “impossible turn” if we’ve pre-briefed AND recently practised it… and always, ALWAYS touch down under control with wings level… whether on the rough, in a tree, or on the side of a building.
Big mistake. Unless you’ve been there and reacted differently, just read, think and learn. No reason to bbe disrespectful
of the deceased. Stay Classy.
There is a huge difference between experience and experiences. Thousands of hours of experiences does not make up for the specific experience that should have been learned in this kind of situation.
Here again, that little piece of mush between the ears, the decision making part let him down. A multi thousand hour commercial airline pilot doesn’t do what he’s suppose to, he did what he wanted to despite of the fact, land straight ahead and live. dumb, dumb dumb.
This was attempting a ‘impossible turn’ hopelessly low. The reason for the pilot went for it may have been the crank but the cause of the crash was the pilot attempting an impossible maneuver.
There’s no way you can make it back to the runway from 200 feet. Google maps shows pretty much nothing but trees off runway 11 at Worcester Regional. It wouldn’t have been pretty to set down in them, but it would have been better than diving into them uncontrolled. This pilot might have survived if he landed straight ahead.