Lancair Super ES | N18BG

The DTSB determines the Probable Cause of this accident to be Pilot Error, in that the pilot did allow ATC local control to fly his aircraft for him, issuing both low assigned speed instructions, as well as sudden and unusual path instructions that caused him to both over bank and pull at a very low speed. The pilot was an air traffic controller from Texas and wanted to comply with every ATC instruction, and likely lost situational awareness of the dire speed. altitude, and bank angle corner that he had been forced in to. The blame for the accident rests with the pilot, but FAA also shares a documented culpability in creating the unsafe and non standard ATC environment as well.

The DTSB recommends that all pilots of all aircraft disregard ATC instructions at any airport, but especially Airventure, where abrupt, low speed, low altitude, last second maneuvering is required, and where ATC routinely uses language such as “tighten it up”, “keep it coming”, “one turn to final”, “add power” “put it down”, etc. All pilots should recognize such commands as non standard and refuse to comply, using phraseology such as “Negative. I will fly a standard pattern and stabilized approach.” The DTSB recommends that pilots not fly in to EAA Airventure until the obvious unsafe, cowboy, non standard screaming from ATC is eliminated and a better plan is published. To date, FAA has not indicated any new changes to the Air Venture arrival procedure for 2025. The DTSB highly recommends not flying in to Airventure and utilizing alternate airports, or driving in for those that desire to attend.