Date & Time:
Feb 22, 1943
Type of aircraft:
Beechcraft AT-10 Wichita
Operator:
Registration:
41-26370
Flight Phase:
Takeoff (climb)
Flight Type:
Training
Survivors:
No
Schedule:
Turner Field - Turner Field
MSN:
1645
YOM:
1942
Country:
United States of America
Region:
North America
Crew on board:
2
Crew fatalities:
2
Pax on board:
0
Pax fatalities:
0
Other fatalities:
0
Total fatalities:
2
Circumstances:
The crew was performing a local training flight at Turner Field, Atlanta. Shortly after liftoff, while climbing to a height of about 100 feet, the airplane stalled, entered a spin and crashed 30 metres to the left of the runway and some 800 metres from the takeoff point. The airplane was destroyed and both crew members were killed.
Crew:
2nd Lt James Israel Platt, pilot,
Sgt Manuel Perez, air gunner.
Crew:
2nd Lt James Israel Platt, pilot,
Sgt Manuel Perez, air gunner.
Probable cause:
Subsequent examination of the pilot’s control column and locking mechanism clearly indicated that the locking arm, which fastened the control column to the rudder bar, had not been completely unlocked and retracted so as to lie parallel to, and along the control column, but had been left in a horizontal (forward pointing) position which prevented the pilot from moving the control column forward of its neutral locked position. Deformation of the forward attaching end of this locking bar, and the attaching lugs on the rudder bar, clearly indicated that it was in contact with them at the time of the crash.
