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Shadow Series CD, G-MYUS, 22 August 2012

Air Accidents (AAIB)

Published on 10 December 2014, 22:48

Summary
aircraft category
sport-aviation-and-balloons
aircraft type
Shadow Series CD
bulk published
1
date of occurrence
2012-08-22
location
Near Laverstock, Salisbury, Wiltshire
registration
G-MYUS
report type
field-investigation

Report Overview

Shadow Series CD, G-MYUS

Summary:

The pilot had planned to carry out a local VFR cross-country flight from Old Sarum to Blandford Forum before returning to Old Sarum. Shortly after leaving the circuit, he contacted ATC and informed them that he was returning to the airfield. He gave no reason for his early return and there were no witnesses to the accident. Following concerns at the airfield that he had not arrived after the expected time, another club aircraft carried out a search and located the wreckage of G-MYUS in a field. The aircraft had struck the ground at a relatively high speed for the aircraft type, fatally injuring the pilot. It was possible that the pilot had become incapacitated in-flight, allowing the aircraft to enter a spiral dive.

This overview has been truncated. Please refer to the official documents below for the complete canonical report.

Official Documents

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Extracted text from the first few pages of the official documents.

Shadow Series CD G-MYUS 04-13.pdf

34� Crown copyright 2013 AAIB Bulletin: 4/2013 G-MYUS EW/C2012/08/05 ACCIDENT Aircraft Type and Registration: Shadow Series CD, G-MYUS No & Type of Engines: 1 Rotax 503-2V piston engine Year of Manufacture: 1995 (Serial no: 257) Date & Time (UTC): 22 August 2012 at 1619 hrs Location: Near Laverstock, Salisbury, Wiltshire Type of Flight: Private Persons on Board: Crew - 1 Passengers - None Injuries: Crew - 1 (Fatal) Passengers - N/A Nature of Damage: Destroyed Commander’s Licence: National Private Pilot’s Licence Commander’s Age: 79 Commander’s Flying Experience: 164 hours (of which 164 were on type) Last 90 days - 2 hours Last 28 days - 1 hour Information Source: AAIB Field Investigation Synopsis The pilot had planned to carry out a local VFR cross‑country flight from Old Sarum to Blandford Forum before returning to Old Sarum. Shortly after leaving the circuit, he contacted ATC and informed them that he was returning to the airfield. He gave no reason for his early return and there were no witnesses to the accident. Following concerns at the airfield that he had not arrived after the expected time, another club aircraft carried out a search and located the wreckage of G-MYUS in a field. The aircraft had struck the ground at a relatively high speed for the aircraft type, fatally injuring the pilot. It was possible that the pilot had become incapacitated in‑flight, allowing the aircraft to enter a spiral dive. History of the flight The pilot was paraplegic and G-MYUS was adapted to enable operation using hand controls. He had booked the flight in advance and arrived at the flying club at Old Sarum about 1130 hrs. The aircraft had not been flown that day, so the pilot performed the daily inspection. The duty instructor pulled the aircraft out of the hangar and refuelled it to full tanks, providing an endurance of approximately 1 hour and 30 minutes. The instructor and the pilot reviewed the weather prior to the flight which the instructor recalled as being good with isolated showers. They discussed the possibility of weather ‘cells’ developing and the need to remain clear of them. The pilot planned a one-hour solo flight along a route with which he was familiar, initially to Alderbury 35� Crown copyright 2013 AAIB Bulletin: 4/2013 G-MYUS EW/C2012/08/05 and then following the A354 road to Blandford Forum before returning to Old Sarum. Having performed the pre-flight inspection, the pilot was lowered into the cockpit using a specially adapted winch. The instructor secured the pilot’s harness and carried out a final inspection of the aircraft, before pushing it up to the parking area. After engine start, the pilot taxied to the holding point of Runway 24. He departed at 1347 hrs making a left turn climbing towards Alderbury. However, at 1357 hrs the air/ground operator stated that the pilot reported on the radio “Alderbury for re-join with 24, left hand, QFE 1008” (Figure 1). At 1405 hrs, the aircraft had not returned to Old Sarum, so the air/ground operator attempted to contact the aircraft but with no response. He confirmed with the instructor the intended routing and endurance and after an hour he contacted other local airfields; however, they had not had any contact with the aircraft either. As a result, the instructor and a colleague took off in another aircraft and subsequently located the wreckage of G-MYUS in a field, two miles to the south-east of the airfield. The pilot had been fatally injured. Meteorological information The weather over the UK on the day of the accident was characterised by a westerly airflow, which was slightly unstable over the southern part of the country. This meant there were rain showers 1 occurring in the Salisbury area, with the Met Office weather radar showing a moderate rain shower at 1430 hrs. Conditions outside the rain showers were good with visibility around 30 km and cloud base at 2,500 ft and above. It is likely that within the rain showers the Footnote 1 The rain showers were referred to by the instructor as ‘cells’. visibility would have dropped to around 7 km and cloud base to approximately 2,000 ft. The surface wind was westerly at 10 to 15 kt and it was possible that in or near rain showers, the wind was gusting to around 25 kt. Licence, medical and pathological information The pilot held a valid NPPL, with a current medical declaration and was not taking any prescribed medication. Based on information provided by witnesses at the airfield, the pilot’s demeanour prior to the flight was normal and in character. The post-mortem confirmed the pilot died instantaneously of multiple injuries consistent with a non-survivable accident in a microlight aircraft. The aviation pathologist, who conducted the post-mortem, advised that the toxicology tests showed no evidence of drugs or exposure to carbon monoxide. However, he identified that the condition of the pilot’s heart could potentially have led to incapacitation. His opinion was that “while there is no definite pathological evidence to indicate that it had done so, if other strands of the accident investigation indicate that pilot incapacitation was a likely cause of the accident, then this finding provides a possible explanation for such incapacitation.” The pilot’s medical records indicated that the heart condition was likely to have been asymptomatic prior to the accident flight. The pathologist advised that it would only have been medically identifiable with specific, non- routine testing. There was no record of the pilot ever having undergone such tests, which are not required for the issue of an NPPL. 36� Crown copyright 2013 AAIB Bulletin: 4/2013 G-MYUS EW/C2012/08/05 Approximate location of the accident site Visual Reporting Point (VRP) identified by the pilot in his last radio transmission. Figure 1 Airfield circuit diagram recovered from the wreckage 37� Crown copyright 2013 AAIB Bulletin: 4/2013 G-MYUS EW/C2012/08/05 Aircraft description The CFM Shadow is a two-seat, high-wing microlight aircraft, that can be home or factory built. The enclosed polycarbonate, Fibrelam and Glass Fibre Reinforced Plastic (GFRP) cockpit has a dual control, tandem‑seat arrangement, but with only the front seat available for solo operation. Longitudinal and lateral control is provided by a right-hand sidestick and conventional pedal arrangement, with a throttle lever on the left side. The two-stroke rotax engine is located behind the rear seat and directly drives a three-blade pusher propeller. The vertical and horizontal stabilisers are located at the end of a tail boom that extends from the rear of the wing/cockpit interface. Twin endplate vertical fins extend above the horizontal stabiliser, with a small ventral fin and large rudder extending below it. The single, full width elevator is fitted with a small electrically operated trim tab. The wing is constructed predominantly from a polyester fabric, stretched over a plywood and aluminium spar structure, with Styrofoam formers providing the aerofoil and leading edge ‘D’ nose profile, with the leading edge skin constructed from GFRP. The aircraft is fitted with a fixed tricycle landing gear with a castoring nosewheel. The aircraft has a normal cruise speed of 65 kt and a V NE of 94 kt. Accident aircraft G-MYUS was modified to allow operation by paraplegic pilots, with the conventional rudder pedals and throttle replaced by a multi-function hand control operating both the rudder and throttle functions. The brakes were also modified for hand operation, with brake levers fitted to both control sticks. The aircraft had been involved in an accident in 2006, when the pilot at the time had carried out an unsuccessful forced landing due to bad weather. The aircraft was significantly damaged during this accident, but had been repaired and returned to service using parts from a donor aircraft, under the approval of the BMAA. Accident site and wreckage The aircraft wreckage was located

Change History

  • First published.

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G-MYUS Shadow Series CD Near Laverstock, Salisbury, Wiltshire