Rockwell OV-10A accident near Hollister, CA
On June 10, 1997, a Rockwell OV-10A (airplane) was involved in an accident near Hollister, CA. 1 person died. Damage to the aircraft: destroyed.
- Date
- June 10, 1997
- Place
- Hollister, CA
- Aircraft
- Rockwell OV-10A · Airplane
- Injuries
- 1 fatal, 0 serious, 0 minor
- Damage
- Destroyed
- Position
- 36.890°N, 121.241°W
- NTSB ID
- 20001208X08164
NTSB summary
HISTORY OF FLIGHT On June 10, 1997, at 0938 hours Pacific daylight time, a North American-Rockwell OV-10A Bronco, N94LM, was destroyed when it impacted the side of a hill 25 statute miles southeast of Hollister, California, at GPS coordinates 36.34.0 degrees north latitude and 121.10.6 degrees west longitude. The commercial pilot was fatally injured, and several trees on the surrounding property were destroyed by fire. The flight departed from Meadows Field, Bakersfield, California, on a local training flight and was being operated by the Bureau of Land Management as a public-use aircraft. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed at the time and no flight plan had been filed. Four witnesses from a fire station reported observing the aircraft fly by their location at approximately 200 feet agl and initiate a roll to the right. The aircraft continued the right roll to a near inverted attitude and then reversed the roll direction in an attempt to level the wings. The aircraft then struck the ground in approximately a 90-degree right bank attitude where it disintegrated and burned. The witnesses stated that the aircraft engines sounded normal and they did not observe anything depart from the aircraft prior to impact. PERSONNEL INFORMATION The pilot had recently joined the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) as an OV-10 pilot. Prior to that time, he had been a helicopter pilot with the U.S. Forest Service and had worked at the fire station where the accident occurred. The pilot's logbook indicated that he had a total of 10,063 flight hours, of which 7,926 were in helicopters and 1
Probable cause
the pilot's failure to maintain adequate ground clearance altitude while performing a low-level aerobatic maneuver. A factor in the accident was the pilot's lack of experience in the aircraft.
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Browse: California · Rockwell aircraft
Source: NTSB aviation accident database (US government, public domain). Findings may be preliminary or later revised by the NTSB. Not a complete global record.
