How did this happen?

They found him, no seat belts on, apparently.

 

Doesn't make a whole lot of sense. Why would you be flying without your belt fastened and what would cause you to come out of the cockpit? The canopy hinge is above the panel. So strange.

 

What a weird (and tragic) story....

Jedi

 

Agree, very strange.
The plane was a Zodiac 601.

The only thing I can think of, and it is purely speculation, is they were doing stall training and somehow had a significant stall where the negative G load was high and the pilot thought his seat belt was securely fastened, but it wasn't, so his body weight hit against the canopy and opened it.

That's a long string of suppositions, but maybe something like that is what happened.
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Perhaps there was a disagreement....
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Apparently this isn't the first time this has happened with a Zodiac. One theory is that the canopy popped open while they were doing a stall, and he released his seat belt to try to grab it and pull it closed.

 

Here is the picture of the actual Zodiac 601 plane involved in the accident.

Also here is the picture of the "student pilot" who fell 2500 feet to his death from the plane.
He is a 77-year-old pilot, David Richardson, who was receiving type training in the Zodiac.
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Maybe he jumped out....

 

That, sadly, is a possibility also.

The instructor in the plane was said to be shaken up by the experience.
And no further commentary has been given as of yet.

Something horrible happened up there.
We'll have to wait for the NTSB report to learn more.
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I remember an account of an airline pilot purchasing a Curtiss Pusher, a parasol winged light plane with the open cockpit ahead of the wing and engine, who was found on the ground some 20 miles from his airplane that crashed in a field sans pilot. They figured that he was flying with seat belt unattached and was ejected from the cockpit in some turbulence.

 

NTSB report may reveal how he became ejected, but we may never know his financial situation, ie retirement/debt/personal health. It's a possibility.

 

My friend was flying a Canard with a pusher prop, when the canopy failed. Apparently he was flying along when the latch on the canopy failed and it flung open. Fortunately he was belted in, but unfortunately his flight log flew out, right into the prop! It broke the prop and killed the engine (or he shut it because it was very imbalanced from the missing blade, I'm not sure). He landed on a highway and wound up rear ending a car travelling down the road in the same direction, totally unaware that a plane hit them in the rear. Thankfully he came to rest in a ditch with no injury and minimal damage to the plane. Unfortunately (or should I say fortunately) there was minimal injury to the occupants of the car....by the way, this was his SECOND crash with a Canard! The first one stalled due to an icing condition, he came down onto a roof of a house, smashed through a fence, then hit the corner of another house. The plane was completely mangled (I have no idea how he survived), thankfully no injuries on the ground, he only had a fairly minor injury to his knee. He is unbelievably lucky! I told him he's grounded!

Here is the first crash:
[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SNl0QX7ppXs]Plane Crash - YouTube[/ame]

Here is the second one:
[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d17-nCUFtMk]Pine Bluff Arkansas Off Field Landing - YouTube[/ame]

 

typically it is very difficult to close any door in flight with a proper seal once it has opened in flight...the standard recommendation is to land, then deal with the door, then resume the flight(there is a lot of physics going on that makes it very difficult to reseal a door in flight )

if the seat belt was removed as part of the attempted corrective action, then Darwin was taking care of his own

 

Friend had a Bonanza. The door popped on takeoff. Charts, etc. flying everywhere. He was alone.

He leaned over to try to pull the door shut and inadvertently jerked the wheel slightly. Had a slight R wing strike on the runway. Did not get the door closed. Went around and landed.

Inspection and repair ensued. Personal injury was mental only, fortunately.

 

Story gets more bizarre.....is that canopy broken on the left rear? And what about the mobile phone helped them locate his body. GPS is good for something huh..and then the builder was 82, and was killed in a crash of another aircraft a few months ago! Wow....can't make it up. It's a sadness......


Man Falls From Plane After Malfunction Causes Canopy to Open, Police Find Body Next Day

A malfunction was what caused the plane's canopy to open, and also caused the plane to nose dive.

"The people inside the plane were not wearing seatbelts," EMA director Troy Spence said. "So when they lost control of the plane, in an attempt to regain control of the plane, the passenger was ejected."

Because the deceased man was carrying a mobile phone, they were able to locate him faster.

Reports indicate that the plane belonged to Clarance Andrews, 82, and that Andrews also built the plane.

But Andrews also died in a plane crash a few months ago, and the student bought the plane from the man's family in early March.
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Plenty of Bonanzas and Barons have crashed because the door popped open on takeoff. It tends to happen right at rotation, and it makes a big noise. The sad thing is the airplane flies just fine with the door open, and can easily flown around and back for a landing.

 

Anyone say Al Holbart? Aerostar. I have a friend buying one of these now as he transitions out of his Cheyenne IIIA.

 

he will really like the Aerostar... it's like getting out of a large SUV and into a "roller skate with wings", space is tight but adaquate, because the Aerostar is quick, he can fly similar approach speeds he did in the Cheyenne...

 

I've had the door pop open in my Bonanza at rotation. It can be pretty alarming and distracting, but fortunately for me I was well aware of the likelihood and was able to return to the field, secure the door, and then continue the flight without further incident.

 

Aerostar is a whole different story if the door opens. I have several hundred hours in Aerostars, and making sure the door was properly closed was always a priority.

The good news is that the door is on the pilot side, and always operated by a pilot. As I recall, the problem on Bonanzas and Barons is that it takes quite a bit of force on the door handle to close it properly, and many passengers are afraid they'll break it, or think it is already latched when it is not.

Those are not issues on the Aerostar.

Aerostar is a great airplane, by the way, although a bit of a step down from a Cheyenne IIIA. Much cheaper to operate, though!

 

Used to own an Aerostar for a log time and there are a lot of stories of doors opening and the pilot trying to close the door and getting his hand cut off when it got too close to the propeller. I assume this is possible but you would have to be pretty tall. I am 5'10 and this wasn't possible for me but I was warned it has happened more then once.

Flew a YAK 52 a long time ago and a couple of months after the rear passenger was ejected through the canopy during a lumcevak. He had a parachute and survived with cuts from the canopy. They think his sleeve got caught on the seat belt release and caused it to unbuckle.
The remaining pilot had a hard time convincing ATC what had happened. I think they thought it was a prank at first.

I have had doors and canopies open on takeoff (and shut in flight) so many times I can't remember. The airplane fly's just fine as long as you don't get startled and make a mistake.

 

Summary of the summary: Weak batt, get service > pilot unbuckled > unlatched canopy > canopy still loose > pilot seatbelt not secure > canopy opens in flight, seatbelt releases > pilot ejected during neg G.

ERA13LA183

 

WOW.

 

A sad and common truth. Rule #1...Fly the airplane!