Howard Harder SKYBOLT N16HH

Summary

On 18 April 2002 at about 15:45 local time, a Howard Harder SKYBOLT registered N16HH was involved in an accident near Claremore, Oklahoma, United States. One person was on board and one died. The aircraft was destroyed. The NTSB has published a probable cause for this accident; it is quoted in full below.

Date

18 April 2002 at 15:45

Classification

Accident

Location

Claremore, Oklahoma, United States

Coordinates

36.2944, -95.4803

Aircraft

Howard Harder SKYBOLT

Registration

N16HH

Category

Airplane

Engines

1

Operator

Not recorded

Operating rule

Part 91: General Aviation

Purpose of flight

Personal

Phase of flight

Not recorded

Route

Claremore → Claremore

Aircraft damage

Destroyed

Weather

VMC

Light

Day

NTSB number

FTW02LA125

1 person died.

The failure of the pilot to maintain clearance with terrain for undetermined reasons while conducting aerobatic maneuvers. A factor contributing to the accident was the physical impairment of the pilot.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record. This site does not paraphrase or interpret it.

Read the full NTSB narrative

After calling the Flight Service Station to check the winds and have the aerobatic box opened, the pilot instructed the lineman to add 5 gallons of fuel to the airplane's main tank. After fueling the pilot taxied to runway 17 and departed at 1010. At 1040 the pilot called in for the winds. The lineman advised him they were 180 degrees at 18 knots with gusts to 22 knots. The pilot then made another call, but the lineman didn't understand what he said. At 1045 the lineman attempted to contact the pilot to inform him that personnel would be on the runway doing repair work. The pilot did not respond. At 1050 the lineman was notified in person by a local resident that he had observed an airplane doing maneuvers, that it went behind a tree line and he didn't see it come back up. At 1052 the lineman began an aerial search, spotting the aircraft wreckage at 1054, approximately 1,000 feet northwest of the departure end of runway 17. One witness said he observed the airplane descending straight down from about 1,000 feet above the ground with the wings rotating clockwise, impacting the ground after it went out of sight behind a row of trees. A second witness said he saw the airplane headed downward in a steep angle, loop, float for 1 second, loop again, and then go straight down. A third witness said he saw a small two-wing airplane wobble in the air, then suddenly go into a loop, and then come down and disappear below a tree line. The pilot had been under treatment for frequent and severe headaches, and had been prescribed frequent narcotic medications and anti-migraine medications as primary treatments for the condition. The most recent prescriptions for narcotic medication and anti-migraine medication were filled 3 days prior to the accident. Post-accident toxicoloty testing revealed the presence of multiple medications, including two different prescription antidepressants detected in blood and a prescription anti-anxiety medication, metabolites of a different prescription anti-anxiety medication, and a prescription narcotic detected in urine. Examination of the airframe and engine, and their logbooks, did not reveal any pre-existing anomalies which would have prevented normal operations.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record.