Adopted May 1, 1944 |
File No. 4969-43 |
REPORT OF THE CITE AERONAUTICS BOARD |
on the |
Investigation of an Accident Involving Aircraft During a Local practice Flight |
Pilot George Herbert Scholl, Jr., was fatally injured in an accident which occurred approximately 12 miles south-southeast of Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania, about 4 45 p.m. on November 24, 1943. Scholl, a War Training Service Navy trainee, had flown 281/2 hours, of which 9 were solo and all were in the type aircraft involved. The aircraft, a Waco UPF-7, NC 29959, owned by the Defense Plant Corporation and being operated by Aircraft Services Consolidated, was demolished. |
Scholl took off from the Bloomsburg Airport at approximately 4.09 p.m. for a local practice flight in an area southeast of the airport. About 30 minutes later he was observed flying at an altitude witnesses estimated to have been from 150 to 300 feet. The aircraft descended with power reduced and at a point approximately one mile east of where the accident occurred the pilot made a l80 degrees turn at a low altitude and headed west about 60 feet above the ground. While proceeding in this westerly direction the plane struck a tree, severing the left wing tips, and crashed in an inverted attitude approximately 300 feet beyond. |
Examination of the wreckage revealed no evidence of failure of any part of the aircraft prior to the accident and the manner in which the metal propeller blades were twisted indicated that power was being developed at the tine of impact. Witnesses were agreed that the engine sounded loader just as the plane struck the tree and the witness nearest the scene scated that the aircraft was pulled up just before the impact. It is quite probable that Scholl was somewhat blinded by the brilliance of the late afternoon sun as ho headed toward the west, and did not see the tree in his flight path until he was almost to it. However, there was no justification for his flying so low. |
The probable cause of this accident was the pilot’s lack of vigilance and failure to observe and avoid en obstruction in his flight path while flying at a dangerously low altitude. |
BY THE BOARD |
/s/ Fred A. Toombs |
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Secretary |