History of Flight
On April 19, 2009, at 1728 Pacific daylight time, an Extra Flugzeugbau GMBH EA-300, registration N101PK, crashed approximately 3 miles offshore of El Capitan State Beach, Santa Barbara, California. The aircraft was operated by Otter Enterprises under 14 CFR Part 91 as a personal flight. The private pilot, the sole occupant, was killed. The airplane was substantially damaged. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed for the local area flight, which had departed Santa Barbara Municipal Airport (SBA) at 1714. No flight plan had been filed.
A witness reported observing the airplane performing aerobatics over the water for about 10 minutes. He described a maneuver repeated four times: "flying straight up, flipping over, coming back down, and then flying straight up again." He then saw the airplane enter a 45-degree descent toward the water and expected it to pull up, but it impacted the water. The witness estimated the airplane's altitude as about four times higher than helicopters flying to oil platforms. The wreckage was located in the El Capitan channel at a depth of about 210 feet and was recovered on April 27, 2009, by a private company hired by the family.
Pilot Information
According to FAA records, the 61-year-old pilot held a private pilot certificate with airplane single-engine land and instrument airplane ratings. He was issued a third-class medical certificate on June 13, 2007, with no restrictions, and reported 3,000 total flight hours at that time. A family friend stated that the pilot flew several times per week and did not perform aerobatics below 3,000 feet.
Aircraft Information
The airplane was a 1994 Extra Flugzeugbau GMBH EA-300, serial number 051. Review of aircraft logbooks indicated a total airframe time of 774 hours at the last annual inspection, completed on March 12, 2008. No further entries were recorded. The engine was a Textron Lycoming AEIO-540-L1B5, serial number L-25253-28A, with the last 100-hour inspection also completed on March 12, 2008, at 774 hours total time.
Communications
The pilot communicated with Santa Barbara airport traffic control tower (ATCT). He requested and received permission for a visual flight rules (VFR) departure to the west practice area between 1714 and 1720. At 1720, he contacted Santa Barbara departure (Elcap sector) and was told to resume own navigation at appropriate VFR altitudes. At 1727:27, the Elcap controller advised that radar contact had been lost. Over the next 15 minutes, numerous attempts to contact the pilot were unsuccessful. The Harbor sector controller coordinated search efforts. No distress calls were made. The controller reported the airplane disappeared from radar at about 2,300 feet, approximately 8 to 9 miles off the extended final runway departure corridor for runways 25 and 7.
Medical and Pathological Information
The Santa Barbara County Sheriff-Coroner completed an autopsy on April 28, 2009, listing the cause of death as "Massive multiple blunt force trauma." The FAA Forensic Toxicology Research Team tested specimens from the pilot. Positive findings included ethanol detected in the heart, blood, and lung (20 mg/dL each), but none in muscle or liver. The toxicology report noted that the ethanol found was from sources other than ingestion.