Takeoff & Initial Climb · NTSB WPR12LA241
WESTCOTT PROWLER JAGUAR — Salinas, CA
| Date | June 1, 2012 |
| Location | Salinas, CA |
| Aircraft | WESTCOTT PROWLER JAGUAR (amateur-built) |
| Purpose of flight | Personal |
| Conditions | Day · Visual Meteorological Cond |
| Phase / occurrence | Initial climb Collision with terr/obj (non-CFIT) |
| Pilot age | 73 |
| Pilot total time | 20,000 hrs · High time |
| Time in type | Unknown |
| Fatalities | 1 |
Probable cause
The pilot's inability to maintain airplane control during takeoff due to an incapacitating cardiac event.
NTSB findings
- Personnel issues-Physical-Impairment/incapacitation-Cardiovascular-Pilot - C
- Aircraft-Aircraft oper/perf/capability-Performance/control parameters-(general)-Not specified - C
What happened
Witnesses reported that the airplane accelerated down the runway, and immediately after takeoff the nose pitched up, and the airplane stalled, rolled, pitched down, and impacted the ground nose first. A postaccident examination of the flight control surfaces revealed no evidence of mechanical malfunctions or failures that would have precluded normal operation.
The forensic pathologist who performed the postmortem examination of the pilot reported that the pilot experienced a sudden cardiac event as a result of coronary artery atherosclerosis while piloting the airplane. The cardiac event is commonly associated with sudden unexpected death and would have resulted in incapacitation.