Pilot wrote off aerobatic bi-plane in crash

A PILOT wrote off a Stoney Stanton-registered aerobatic bi-plane when he performed a somersault on the ground.

The bright yellow plane flipped over completely and landed on its wheels again seconds after it had touched down in a field of barley in Cambridgeshire.

The dramatic touchdown happened after the 62-year old pilot was “rushing his decisions” because he was late to catch up with friends.

Luckily he walked away from the crash with minor injuries but the plane, a 1973 Starduster Too – reg G BNNA – registered in the name of Martin Albert Neeves, trustee of the Banana Group of 58, Highfield Street, Stoney Stanton, was badly damaged in the incident.

The pilot, who has 340 hours flying experience, has partly blamed “rushed decisions” by him in an official air-crash report about the incident on June 20.

The newly published Air Accident Investigation Branch report said: “The pilot assessed that con- tributory factors to the accident were: this being his first landing at the airfield in a tailwheel aircraft and rushing his decisions due to being late for a planned meeting with friends.”

The report says the flight to Keyston had been normal but that on landing the pilot of a Starduster could not see the runway ahead and instead has to take “visual cues” from either side of the aircraft.

It says: “Prior to touchdown the pilot had been prioritising his cues to the east side and had neglected to monitor the west side sufficiently.

“He was therefore unaware that the aircraft had drifted half over the crop margin.”

Describing the way the aircraft somersaulted the report says: “It touched down in the barley crop and the resultant rapid deceleration caused it to nose over.

“The momentum continued the rotation vertically over the tail and back onto the landing gear and the aircraft came to rest, upright, at the runway/crop boundary.”