The pilot reported that while taking off from a road near Winnie, Texas, the Boeing PT-17 encountered a sudden wind shift that caused the airplane to settle.
As the airplane approached power lines above a road signal light and cables, the pilot decided to fly under the power lines. During the descent, the airplane hit the signal light cables. The airplane yawed to the left, hit the ground, and nosed over into a ditch on the side of the road coming to rest inverted.
The airplane sustained substantial damage to the wings and fuselage. The pilot sustained minor injuries.
In his NTSB Form 6120.1, the pilot reported that he put pressure on himself to fly the airplane to shelter due to approaching thunderstorms and would not recommend second guessing any approaching weather conditions. He stated that the abrupt wind changes from possible downdrafts were factors in the airplane’s inability to clear the obstacles in its flight path.
Probable Cause: The pilot’s decision to takeoff from a road with obstacles in his flight path and his failure to maintain control of the airplane when encountering changing winds from approaching thunderstorms which resulted in the airplane impacting signal light cables.
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This October 2021 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.
the danger of unsettling disturbances in the atmosphere lends a pilot, who is flying an aircraft, to consider the unknown dangers involved. considering it takes a great deal of skill to pilot an aircraft, this pilot showed disregard for public safety when he attempted takeoff and crashed. that person is no pilot.
My vehicle was next to where the plane crashed(yes, receiving damage!) …this pilot did not have permission to take off and fly from this parade. He put many people including myself in Danger!!!! Shame on him!!! Complete disregard for spectators safety!
….written as a noun or ADJECTIVE…..
Why was he taking off from a road to begin with?
All of that was spelled out in the NTSB records which should be available to you via the links.
And what I fear happened to him was the winds changed such that he suddenly had a tail wind (perhaps quartering) that robbed him of maybe 10 KTs of air speed so that he couldn’t climb and couldn’t accelerate out of it. And this is not something one can always predict. You know the storm is coming and you should be able to beat it, given your timing. And then Ma Nature throw a curve ball.
What a shame a beautiful and historical plane was lost.
The sad thing this pilot will go on and fly again, endangering how many people on the ground and the air?
Just think they decertified a very good pilot for flying under a bridge that had almost a zero hazard potential and this guy tries to fly under wires where a vehicle could be..
Gives us all a horrible name..
In an hour the weather was probably beautiful to fly in.
“If you crash due to weather, your funeral will be held on a sunny day”
– Unknown
Reality hits you HARD, bro !
Mine is the lament that American English continues to degrade further by the hour!
How could the writer not recognize the phrasal verb, “to take off” and inexplicably write it as a compound word- as though it were a noun or verb in this sentence! But it’s clearly not! Folks, how do you expect to inflect – conjugate – a verb phrase written as one word?????
I takeoff
You takeoff
He/she/it takeoffs????
Pathetic!!!
takes off.
sigh.