Crash cause pilot error

Press, 25 October 1982, Page 19

Crash cause pilot error

PA Wellington A light aircraft crash in which two persons died in Central Otago last October was caused by pilot error, the Chief Inspector of Air Accidents, Mr Ron Chippendale, has found. The accident at Luggate airfield on October 17 last year was caused when a Cessna was making a lowlevel pass along the length of the runway and clipped the wing of a parked aircraft. The two men killed in the crash, Brian Kevin Mander, aged 38. and Roderick Thomas MacKenzie, aged 25, were both employed by an aircraft company. Mr Chippendale said in his

report that the crash “was not survivable.” “The probable cause of this accident was an error of skill by the pilot (Mr Mander), which resulted in loss of control of the aircraft, during unauthorised low flying, after damage sustained in a collision between it and a parked aircraft,” the report said. Mr Mander was a highly experienced pilot with more than 4162 hours flying time, including more than 32 hours in the 90 days before the crash and was used to carrying out demonstration flights including low level “passes.”