Yakovlev YAK 52 accident near Palmyra, IL
On May 2, 2020, a Yakovlev YAK 52 (airplane) was involved in an accident near Palmyra, IL. 1 person died. Damage to the aircraft: destroyed.
- Date
- May 2, 2020
- Place
- Palmyra, IL
- Aircraft
- Yakovlev YAK 52 · Airplane
- Injuries
- 1 fatal, 0 serious, 0 minor
- Damage
- Destroyed
- Position
- 39.409°N, 89.990°W
- NTSB ID
- 20200502X81549
Official records · CEN20LA168
- Public docket: reports, statements and exhibits from the investigation
NTSB summary
On May 2, 2020, about 1600 central daylight time, a Yakovlev YAK-52 airplane, N27YK, was destroyed when it was involved in an accident near Palmyra, Illinois. The pilot was fatally injured. The airplane was operated as a Title 14 Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) Part 91 personal flight. A witness north of Zelmer Memorial Airpark Inc (5K1), Palmyra, Illinois, saw the airplane descend toward the airport at high speed, “way too fast to be landing.” He lost sight of the airplane as it descended behind a tree line. A few moments later, he saw the airplane climb into sight 200 to 300 ft above ground level (agl) about 1.5 miles away, start to roll, and descend steeply into the ground. A pilot witness observed the airplane make a low pass over the airport around 20 to 30 ft agl. He stated that the airplane pitched up 5 to 10° to about 100 to 200 ft agl when it was past the end of the runway and made a slow roll to the left. As the airplane rolled inverted, he did not think the pilot had enough altitude to perform the maneuver. He lost sight of the airplane as it descended and passed about 270° of roll. His wife captured the low pass on video, but did not record the airplane climbing away from the ground or the roll maneuver. Another witness was mowing his yard when he saw the airplane traveling to the west at low altitude. It began a roll “to the south” and then “nose-dived” steeply toward the ground about 1/2 mile from his location. One of the witnesses, who was not a pilot, said he was familiar with the accident pilot and he had seen the pilot perform “barrel rolls” over propert
Probable cause
A loss of control during a low-altitude aerobatic maneuver.
More accidents in IL
- Beech 1900C, Nov 19, 1996
- Beech C-45H, Sep 7, 1992
- Hawker Siddeley HS-748-2A, Oct 12, 1983
- Cessna 414A, Apr 7, 2015
- Cessna 172P, Jul 19, 1997
Browse: Illinois
Source: NTSB aviation accident database (US government, public domain). Findings may be preliminary or later revised by the NTSB. Not a complete global record.
