History of Flight
On September 2, 2019, at about 0922 central daylight time, a Weatherly Aviation Company 620B, registration N90104, was destroyed in an accident near Russellville, Alabama. The pilot was fatally injured. The airplane was operating as a Title 14 Code of Federal Regulations Part 137 aerial application flight. The local flight originated from a private grass airstrip around 0915. According to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) inspector who responded, the pilot was applying insecticide and plant regulator to a cotton field oriented east-west. During the first pass, the airplane overflew a road and collided with power lines, breaking two of four wires. It then struck the top of a tree, breaking several limbs, before colliding with the ground and catching fire. No eyewitnesses were known.
Aircraft and Pilot Information
The pilot's logbook was not located; flight times were derived from his latest FAA second-class medical application dated January 17, 2019. The aircraft maintenance records were also not located during the investigation. The pilot reported monocular vision (right eye prosthesis) to the FAA and obtained a Statement of Demonstrated Ability in 2005 for that condition. He also reported obstructive sleep apnea with use of a continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) device. His last FAA medical exam included a July 2019 report showing 99.7% CPAP usage over the preceding 378 days, averaging 9 hours 12 minutes of sleep per night, with an average Apnea-Hypopnea Index of 2.1.
Wreckage and Impact
The airplane was traveling west when it first contacted power lines. The wreckage path spanned about 500 feet. The right wing tip was located immediately south of the broken lines. After initial ground impact, the main wreckage continued 40–50 feet before stopping. Several unidentified airframe sections were lodged 20–30 feet up a tree. The fuselage from engine to empennage was consumed by post-impact fire. Flight control continuity was confirmed from cockpit controls to ailerons, rudder, and elevator. The engine sustained extensive fire damage but no case rupture was observed. One of three propeller blades separated during ground impact and was found nearby; all blades showed twisting and chordwise scratching. Examination revealed no evidence of mechanical malfunction or failure.
Medical and Pathological Findings
An autopsy by the Alabama Department of Forensic Sciences listed the cause of death as hypertensive cardiovascular disease complicated by blunt force trauma, with the manner of death accident. There was no soot in the airways despite significant post-impact fire. The heart weighed 640 grams (average for a man of his weight: 460 grams; range 346–602 grams) with left ventricular wall and interventricular septum thickness of 1.8 cm each (average 1.3 cm) and right ventricular free wall 0.6 cm (average 0.3 cm). A single area of about 50% stenosis was found in the left anterior descending coronary artery. Toxicology testing by the FAA's Forensic Sciences Laboratory identified Carboxy-Delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC-COOH) at 11.1 ng/mL in cardiac blood and 66.1 ng/mL in urine, but no parent THC or active metabolite in blood. 11-Hydroxy-Delta-9-THC was found in urine at 4.6 ng/mL. No significant carboxyhemoglobin was reported. The pilot's primary care medical records from the preceding three years contained only a telephone consult for a referral to his sleep center.