A witness reported that, after an overnight visit, he dropped the pilot and passenger off at a neighbor’s private airstrip near Colonial Beach, Virginia, about 9:45 a.m. for their flight home.
He then returned to his house and, about 30 minutes later when he was standing in his driveway, he watched the Van’s RV-6 make two circles around his house.
On the second circle, the airplane was in a very steep “knife-edge” bank in a tight circle about 100 feet above the ground. The nose of the airplane then dropped and the airplane hit the ground beside his driveway in a near-vertical attitude.
The pilot and passenger died in the crash.
The witness told investigators the engine was “running well the entire time.” The owner of the grass airstrip reported a similar account.
The airplane hit the ground in a nose-down attitude and came to rest upright, oriented on a magnetic heading of 345°. A post-impact fire consumed most of the airplane. The wreckage site was compact and all major components of the airplane were located at the accident site.
Both wings were accordion-crushed aft and remained attached to the fuselage. The right wing flap was separated and located behind the main wreckage. The right aileron was still attached to the wing by the linkage. The left wing flap and aileron remained attached to the left wing.
The fuselage, instrument panel, cabin, seats, control cables, and inboard wings were all consumed by fire.
The empennage was fire damaged, however the rudder, elevator, and vertical stabilizer were all intact.
The engine was fire damaged and all the accessories were also fire damaged and mostly melted. The engine’s crankshaft was rotated via the propeller hub and thumb compression, valve action, and crankshaft continuity were confirmed on three of the four cylinders. Powertrain and valvetrain continuity was established through the engine and accessory case. Borescope examination of all cylinders revealed no anomalies. The wood propeller was fractured in several pieces and located near the impact crater.
Probable Cause: The pilot’s failure to maintain adequate airspeed while maneuvering at low altitude, which resulted in an exceedance of the airplane’s critical angle of attack and a subsequent aerodynamic stall.
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This June 2023 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.
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