From the article:
“...his second-hand plane, which appeared to be poorly maintained...”
Impossible to tell without inspection, but could have been in flight worthy condition, despite being a bit cosmetically banged up...Duct tape doesn’t necessarily mean it’s ill maintained...Military used 100 mph tape extensively...
Investigators will look into that...Too bad he wasted a nice little aircraft...Taylorcraft is a fun little taildragger if a bit limited in its performance (slow)...
Looks to be FUBAR from the crash pix...