Saturday, September 10, 2011

Lancair IV P, N71DM: Steep dive cited in air crash. Accident occurred August 20, 2011 near Hammonton Municipal Airport (N81), New Jersey.

http://www.ntsb.gov/Preliminary Report

6:56 PM, Sep. 10, 2011

HAMMONTON — A Voorhees pilot who died in a midair crash last month collided with another plane making a steep dive in an area set aside for aerobatics, a federal safety agency says.

David N. Mitchell, 71, came “out of nowhere” moments before the deadly accident in the skies above Hammonton Municipal Airport on the afternoon of Aug. 20, according to a preliminary report from the National Transportation Safety Board.

“Neither airplane appeared to have altered its course before the collision,” says the NTSB report.

Mitchell, the founder and president of a poultry-processing firm, suffered fatal injuries in the 1:15 p.m. crash. The other pilot, Kirill Barsukov of Jersey City, parachuted to the ground and was hospitalized with serious injuries.

According to the report, Barsukov was flying in an aerobatic practice area to the east of a runway at the Hammonton airport. Although an “observer/coach” was watching Barsukov, the area was not monitored by air traffic controllers, the report notes.

A witness on the ground said Barsukov had been flying his Russian-built YAK-55M for about 20 minutes before the accident occurred.

“She saw the Yak make a steep climb, then enter a steep dive,” says the report. “As it did so, she saw a white airplane traveling “really fast come out of nowhere” in level flight and collide with the Yak.”

Mitchell, who was flying an “amateur-built” Lancair IV P, had taken off from South Jersey Regional Airport in Lumberton for an unknown destination, the report says. He was flying at about 3,500 feet as his plane approached the airport, according to preliminary radar information.

http://www.courierpostonline.com

http://www.ntsb.gov/Preliminary Report

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