>> Troy Tenhet: ... the AT-6 broke into several pieces ... the crash made no sense unless something mechanical broke ...Nothing on the plane was old except the frame ... [the pilot] would take no risks.”
>> Witnesses: ... the plane was flying fast and fairly low when it dipped, came back up and then crashed ... it lifted up and it looked like it went up too fast and too quickly ... it just slipped backwards and went into the ground ... the plane went low, back up, then down and up again just before it crashed ...
After 47 years in the cockpit (I started flying at 18), holding an A&P, an ATP with 5 type ratings, having owned two long in the tooth airplanes (a 1946 Cessna 120 and, currently, a 1976 ASW-19 glider), and after having lost 7 friends in crashes, I have grown tired if the likes of Mr. Tenhet’s comments.
Here are my comments:
1/ There are old pilots, and bold pilots, but no old,bold pilots.
2/ Aviation is unforgiving of carelessness and neglect.
3/ These aircraft were designed in the mid ‘30s an built out of ALLOY (read mixed-metal - as in “battery” in the presence of salt and moisture). Whatever happened to “I’m old, please be gentle with me”?
Is it possible the oscillations were caused by a pilot who had a stroke, heart attack, or other medical syndrome which caused him to lose control?
I’ll speculate:
The lady witness said the plane crossed the highway headed west at low altitude then turned and came back across the highway to the east.
Al Goss was a crop duster pilot.
Sounds like he was doing some mock dusting didn’t see a power line.
We won’t know for sure for some months