Background
The pilot, who held an instrument rating, was accompanied by two passengers while returning from the Reno Air Races, where they had served as pylon spotters. The destination airport was overcast with low stratus clouds. After unsuccessfully checking three mountain passes for a visual route into the coastal basin, the pilot diverted to an airport on the desert side of the coastal mountains to obtain additional fuel and file an IFR flight plan into the basin.
Departure and Flight
One passenger chose to disembark, and the pilot departed with the remaining passenger. Recorded radar data and air-to-ground communications between the aircraft and air traffic control (ATC) showed that the pilot responded to heading and altitude instructions. While the aircraft was on vectors to intercept the destination's instrument landing system (ILS), the controller took the aircraft through the final approach twice for spacing with a preceding airplane.
Incident
The aircraft's Mode C transponder reported an altitude of 6,000 feet when the controller issued an instruction to reduce to final approach speed and then turn right to a new heading. The secondary beacon target began the right turn, and radar contact was lost. The last recorded Mode C report indicated 6,100 feet mean sea level. Witnesses near the impact site heard an airplane in the low overcast, estimated to be 800 to 1,000 feet above ground level. The sound of the airplane was changing, as if it were orbiting or turning. The witnesses then observed the airplane descending out of the clouds in a nose-down attitude. As the airplane appeared to start a pullout, a noise was heard, and the airplane's tail appeared to break apart. Fragmented components of the tail assembly were recovered from various locations and distances from the wreckage site.
Examination
Reconstruction of the wreckage found no abnormal conditions in either the aircraft structure or flight instruments.