Sling LSA | N166TW

The DTSB determines the Probable Cause of this accident to be Pilot Error, in that the accident pilot, Robert Cox, was observed in the same accident aircraft flying very low and very aggressively, just minutes before the accident, and did stall the aircraft during the maneuvering at an altitude too low to recover from. The other occupant was Daniel Sarner, aged 51, a commercial pilot. Repeated trips between the two individuals’ airports, KCRQ (Cox) and KTOA (Sarner) are documented. Numerous very low level flight and low level maneuvering, as well as low level trips in the terrain of Catalina Island are in the recent flight history, apparently replicating the low level marine style helicopter operations familiar to Cox from marine helicopter combat missions.

The DTSB recommends that all pilots of all aircraft rehearse and condition themselves to avoid “Flying Cowboy” style low level aggressive Buzzing/ Acro maneuvering thrill type flight operations.