Former Navy Pilot Dies in Vintage Airplane Crash

The North American SNJ-2 had just departed Republic Airport on Long Island when it began a steep climbing turn.

It was one of six aircraft preparing to reposition for an upcoming airshow.

The maneuver was not unusual in appearance. Another Skytypers aircraft had performed a similar turn moments earlier.

But at the top of the maneuver, the sixth aircraft stalled.

The airplane entered a spin and continued rotating until it struck the ground.

The pilot, a longtime member of the Skytypers and an experienced professional aviator, was killed.

The NTSB investigation ultimately determined that the airplane had exceeded its critical angle of attack during the climbing turn, resulting in an aerodynamic stall and spin.

A formation flight begins

The accident occurred on May 30, 2018, near Farmingdale, New York.

The aircraft, N62382, was a North American SNJ-2 operated by the Geico Skytypers.

The six-aircraft formation was preparing to fly from Republic Airport to Patuxent River Naval Air Station in Maryland for an upcoming airshow.

The accident airplane was No. 6.

The lead aircraft departed first and established itself northeast of the airport while the remaining aircraft followed.

A flight instructor operating in the traffic pattern watched the sequence.

He saw the No. 5 airplane initiate a steep climbing right turn. He estimated that the bank angle reached approximately 70 to 80 degrees. The aircraft climbed to roughly 1,200 feet above ground before leveling.

The outcome was completely different.

The turn

Flight-track information reconstructed the accident airplane's path.

After departure from runway 14, the aircraft turned northeast and climbed to approximately 1,200 feet mean sea level. It then turned northwest while continuing to climb to about 1,300 feet.

Then it began losing altitude.

It continued through additional rotations as the descent accelerated.

A witness video captured the final portion of the flight.

The aircraft was in a steep nose-down attitude while rotating around its vertical axis.

It was no longer simply turning.

And the spin continued until impact.

Why the aircraft stalled

The NTSB's analysis centered on angle of attack rather than a mechanical failure.

During a steep climbing turn, the airplane's aerodynamic margin can disappear rapidly.

Increasing bank angle increases the load factor required to maintain altitude. As the load factor increases, the stall speed also increases.

The aircraft does not need to be traveling slowly in an absolute sense to stall.

It needs to exceed its critical angle of attack.

That distinction is important.

The airplane could have had substantial airspeed while still entering an aerodynamic stall if the pilot demanded enough lift during the steep turn.

The NTSB concluded that this is what happened.

The pilot exceeded the airplane's critical angle of attack. The aircraft stalled, entered a spin and subsequently impacted terrain.

The mechanical investigation

Investigators examined the wreckage for evidence that something else had caused the loss of control.

The airframe and engine did not reveal an anomaly that would have prevented normal operation.

Flight-control cable continuity was established throughout the airframe.

The engine and propeller did not indicate a power-loss event that explained the accident.

One unusual finding did receive significant attention: carbon monoxide was detected in the pilot's blood.

The level was approximately 10 percent.

Investigators examined the cockpit heater and exhaust system to determine whether carbon monoxide could have entered the cockpit.

The heater assembly contained cracks and repair-related welds, but investigators found no evidence establishing that carbon monoxide from the heater had caused the accident. The NTSB determined that the concentration was unlikely to have produced symptoms and found no evidence that CO contributed to the loss of control.

That finding is significant because the presence of an abnormal toxicology result can easily become a distraction from the actual accident sequence.

In this case, the evidence continued to point toward aerodynamics.

An experienced airshow pilot

The pilot had flown with the Skytypers for more than ten years.

During May 2018 alone, he had accumulated approximately 18 hours in the accident aircraft and another three hours in other Skytypers SNJ-2s.

This was therefore not a case of an inexperienced pilot suddenly attempting an unfamiliar aircraft.

The accident demonstrates something more uncomfortable: experience does not remove aerodynamic limits.

An airshow environment can involve precise, demanding maneuvers in which small changes in bank angle, pitch or energy state can have major consequences.

A maneuver that appears routine from outside can move rapidly from controlled flight to an unrecoverable condition if the aircraft crosses its aerodynamic boundary.

The formation context

There is another subtle aspect to the accident.

The No. 6 aircraft then performed its own version.

The fact that the preceding airplane completed the maneuver does not mean the second airplane necessarily had the same aerodynamic energy state.

Differences in timing, speed, pitch, bank angle or control inputs can change the outcome.

The investigation did not need to establish a dramatic mechanical failure or external event.

Once the stall developed into a spin at relatively low altitude, the available recovery margin was extremely limited.

Accident Facts

The NTSB docket includes the wreckage examination, accident-site examination, toxicology information and electronic-device/GPS material used to reconstruct the flight path.

The safety lesson

The most important lesson from this accident is not that steep turns are inherently unsafe.

It is that aerodynamic limits do not care how experienced the pilot is.

A steep climbing turn can consume airspeed and aerodynamic margin rapidly. Once the aircraft reaches the critical angle of attack, additional control input does not restore the situation—it can make it worse.

The accident also shows why airshow and formation operations require disciplined energy management.

The No. 5 aircraft completing a maneuver does not guarantee that No. 6 has the same energy state.

The final sequence was only a few seconds long.

There was no dramatic mechanical failure to warn investigators what had happened.

The evidence instead told a simpler story: the aircraft was flown beyond its aerodynamic limit, stalled, entered a spin and did not have enough altitude to recover.

Sources

• Original ATC recording