Low-Altitude Maneuvering · NTSB CEN21FA355
NORTH AMERICAN T-6G — Starkville, MS
| Date | August 4, 2021 |
| Location | Starkville, MS |
| Aircraft | NORTH AMERICAN T-6G |
| Purpose of flight | Personal |
| Conditions | Day · Visual Meteorological Cond |
| Phase / occurrence | Maneuvering-low-alt flying Low altitude operation/event |
| Pilot age | 64 |
| Pilot total time | 3,505 hrs · High time |
| Time in type | 326 hrs |
| Fatalities | 2 |
Probable cause
NTSB findings
- Personnel issues-Psychological-Attention/monitoring-Monitoring environment-Pilot
- Aircraft-Aircraft oper/perf/capability-Performance/control parameters-Altitude-Not attained/maintained
- Environmental issues-Physical environment-Object/animal/substance-Tree(s)-Contributed to outcome
What happened
The pilot was conducting a series of low-level maneuvers when the accident occurred. The airplane subsequently impacted trees and terrain. A postaccident examination revealed no mechanical malfunctions or anomalies that would have precluded normal operation.
Although ethanol was detected in the pilot’s cavity blood, no ethanol was detected in the pilot’s vitreous specimens. Because vitreous specimens are generally less susceptible to contamination and postmortem microbial ethanol production than other specimen types, the absence of detectable ethanol in the pilot’s vitreous specimens indicated that the detected ethanol in the pilot’s cavity blood was likely from sources other than consumption and was thus not a factor in the accident.