The pilot of an “experimental amateur-built” plane tumbled out of the aircraft mid-flight and hit the tail, causing the crash in rural Pennsylvania that killed him and his passenger, federal officials found.
The two-seater Bearhawk Patrol plane came down nose-first on a farm near Hanover Township, just 100 feet from where children were enjoying a hayride, on Oct. 29, 2022, after the pilot somehow wound up outside the aircraft flying at 1,700 feet in the air.
“Although the reason for the pilot’s exit from the airplane during flight could not be determined, his impact with the tail section of the airplane during flight resulted in substantial damage to the tail section and a subsequent loss of control during flight from which the pilot-rated passenger would not have been able to recover,” according to the final results of a National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) investigation released this week.
The pilot, previously identified by a coroner as 76-year-old Ronald Snyder, had told a friend before the accident that the plane had a rigging issue that caused aircraft to “kick” laterally during turns, the report stated.
The friend flew the plane for 10 minutes and reported back to Snyder that “he noticed the odd yawing movement in the turns.”
Snyder told his pal he would address the issue “this winter,” according to the report.
The plane departed from Wilkes-Barre Wyoming Valley Airport en route to an airport in Lebanon County and was in the air for just a few minutes after climbing to 1,700 feet when it ran in trouble.
“Witnesses reported that the airplane ‘rolled’ then bucked’ as its nose ‘dipped down initially,’ then pitched up ‘quickly,’” the report stated. “Several witnesses reported seeing the pilot out of the airplane at this time, and one reported seeing the pilot impact then spiral off the airplane’s tail. Witnesses then observed the pilot and airplane descend to the ground.”
The NTSB said it was unknown why Snyder had decided to unbuckle his seatbelt mid-flight, but it speculated that he may have been trying to check out the plane’s tail.
“It is possible that either the pilot fell out of the airplane while attempting to observe the tail section, or that the pilot displaced a flight control while attempting to observe the tail, which then caused an abrupt pitching moment that ejected him from the airplane,” investigators wrote.
The plane’s passenger, identified as Michael Bowen, 59, was found dead in the plane wreckage, while Snyder was discovered about 500 feet away.
Both Snyder and Bowen died from multiple traumatic injuries and their deaths were ruled accidental.
Toxicology tests conducted by the Federal Aviation Administration found an antidepressant and a cholesterol medication in the pilot’s system but they were not believed to be factors in the crash, according to the report.
