Golightly RV-4 accident near La Verne, CA
On December 26, 1993, a Golightly RV-4 (airplane) was involved in an accident near La Verne, CA. 1 person died. Damage to the aircraft: destroyed.
- Date
- December 26, 1993
- Place
- La Verne, CA
- Aircraft
- Golightly RV-4 · Airplane
- Injuries
- 1 fatal, 0 serious, 0 minor
- Damage
- Destroyed
- Position
- 34.150°N, 117.759°W
- NTSB ID
- 20001211X13868
NTSB summary
HISTORY OF FLIGHT On December 26, 1993, at 0903 hours Pacific standard time, an experimental homebuilt Golightly RV-4, N312RG, was destroyed during an uncontrolled descent into terrain at Brackett Field, La Verne, California. The pilot received fatal injuries. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed for the personal flight which was destined for Chino, California. Witnesses stated that the airplane was departing on runway 26R, and had climbed to between 200 and 300 feet above the runway when they heard the engine quit. They further stated that the airplane made a sharp right turn to nearly inverted attitude, and then into what appeared to be a one turn spin before impacting the ground in the northwest tie down area of the airport. The Brackett Air Traffic Control Tower reported that the airplane was cleared for takeoff at 0902:11 and, at 0903:10, the pilot stated on tower frequency, "i've got a little problem here." The tower observed the crash at 0903:16. The airplane was partially consumed by a postcrash fire. PERSONNEL INFORMATION According to available records, the private pilot had accumulated about 902.0 hours of flight time. The pilot was issued a third- class medical certificate on February 29, 1992. AIRCRAFT INFORMATION The airplane was built by the owner/pilot and was certificated in the experimental category on July 31, 1992. According to limited data recovered at the accident site, the airplane had flown a total of about 40.0 hours since it was built. WRECKAGE AND IMPACT INFORMATION Postcrash examination of the wreckage revealed that the airplane had crashed
Probable cause
a loss of engine power due to the improper maintenance and installation of the fuel system lines and fittings, and the pilot's failure to ensure the engine fuel primer was locked prior to takeoff. An additional cause was the pilot's failure to maintain minimum airspeed to avoid a stall while maneuvering after the engine power loss and the inadvertent entry into a stall/spin.
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Source: NTSB aviation accident database (US government, public domain). Findings may be preliminary or later revised by the NTSB. Not a complete global record.
