RV-6 similar to accident aircraft. Photo by A. Hunt.

A little bit over four months ago (on March 18, 2009), I posted about a Van’s RV-6 (N6383W) accident in which I really didn’t have that much information on what may have occurred.  The plane crashed in Paulden, Arizona and killed the pilot, Curtis Jarvis.  You can read what little information I did have on this light airplane crash on the original post HERE.  However, the National Transportation and Safety Board (NTSB) released their final report on this accident earlier this month and it gave quite a clear view of what seemed to happen to this aircraft.  Here are the details revealed in the report.

Going straight to the point, the NTSB determined that the aircraft crashed because the pilot lost control of the aircraft while attempting to do a forced landing.  But, why was the aircraft forced to perform an emergency landing?  A witness near the accident site reported seeing the airplane trailing white smoke, making left and right turns and descending.  As it reached tree top level, the aircraft pitched down and crashed.  White smoke, as is seen in some air show demonstrations, is usually produced when oil begins to leak from an airplane.  It differs from the darker smoke related to fires.  When the aircraft wreckage was inspected by an NTSB/FAA investigator, it was discovered that the aircraft had an oil streak all through the bottom of the fuselage and on to the tail wheel.  Oil had definitely leaked from the plane, leading to loss of power on the engine and the pilot was forced to seek a place to land his aircraft.

A friend of the pilot, who was an Airframe and Powerplant mechanic, said that weeks prior to the accident, the pilot had been flying the plane from Big Springs Ranch Airport (AZ27) to his home airport in Texas when the pilot decided to stop in Sedona Airport (SEZ) to refuel the plane.  AT SEZ the pilot discovered that there was oil leaking from the engine area so the plane remained at SEZ.

On the day that the accident occurred, the A&P mechanic friend met with the pilot at SEZ to look at the airplane and try to solve the problem.  After an engine run-up was done, the oil leak was not discovered and both the pilot and the mechanic decided to do a flight to check on the airplane.  During the climb out after takeoff, the mechanic observed white smoke trailing the aircraft and asked the pilot to return to SEZ which he did.  The A&P then cleaned the engine and conducted a test run of the engine which led to the discovery that there was indeed an oil leak coming from behind the alternator in a stainless steel line that went from the propeller governor to the forward part of the engine’s crankcase.  There was an abrasion mark on the steel line and a corresponding wear mark on the crankcase.

The mechanic and pilot decided they would take the steel line to a local welding shop, weld the abrasion leak shut and then try to fly the plane again.  The oil line was welded and placed back in its proper place between the engine and propeller governor.  After an engine run-up, no oil leaks were observed so it was decided that the pilot would fly the aircraft to 8,000-10,000 feet above sea level and then circle the airport for 15 minutes to check for any problems before returning to SEZ.  This is when things took a wrong turn.

When the airplane took off, the mechanic saw that there was a small amount of white smoke coming from the plane and he informed the pilot.  The mechanic says that he made two requests to the pilot to return to SEZ, but the pilot said that everything was fine and that he would attempt to take the plane back to AZ27.  According to the mechanic, he even suggested a few places for the pilot to land in if there was a problem on the way.  The 2,850 hours of experience pilot said “not to worry”.  As we know, the plane did not make it back to Big Springs Ranch Airport and crashed instead near Paulden, Arizona.

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Related Post:

• Original post on Paulden, Arizona crash.
• Another Van’s Aircraft accident near Sanderson, FL.
• A look at another RV-6A crash that killed 2.
  

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