Accident Description
On May 2, 2020, about 1600 central daylight time, a Yakovlev YAK-52 airplane, registered N27YK, was destroyed when it crashed near Palmyra, Illinois. The pilot, operating under Title 14 Code of Federal Regulations Part 91 for a personal flight, was fatally injured.
Witnesses provided varying accounts of the accident. One witness north of Zelmer Memorial Airpark Inc observed the airplane descending toward the airport at high speed, appearing to be "way too fast to be landing." He lost sight of the aircraft behind a tree line, then saw it climb to 200–300 feet above ground level (agl) about 1.5 miles away, before it rolled and descended steeply into the ground. Another witness, a pilot, reported seeing the aircraft make a low pass over the airport at 20–30 feet agl. The airplane pitched up 5–10° to about 100–200 feet agl, then performed a slow roll to the left. As it became inverted, the witness believed insufficient altitude remained to complete the maneuver, and the airplane descended after passing about 270° of roll. His wife captured the low pass on video, but not the subsequent climb or roll. A third witness, mowing his yard, saw the airplane traveling west at low altitude; it began a roll "to the south" and then "nose-dived" steeply toward the ground about half a mile away.
A witness familiar with the pilot stated he had previously seen the pilot perform "barrel rolls" over property owned by a family member, but at altitudes a couple hundred feet higher than the accident altitude.
Wreckage Examination
An on-scene examination conducted by a Federal Aviation Administration inspector revealed the airplane impacted an open field about half a mile south of Zelmer Memorial Airpark. The wreckage came to rest 10–15 feet from the initial impact point. The impact crater measured 12–18 inches deep, and the direction of travel from the crater to the wreckage was about 240°. The aircraft was heavily impact-damaged. Both wooden propeller blades were fragmented and separated at the hub.
The landing gear were retracted. The tail section and empennage aft of the rear cockpit were almost completely severed from the fuselage and folded under the inverted wreckage. Control cables and turnbuckles were in place, but flight controls could not be moved and continuity could not be verified due to the extent of damage.
Pilot Information
Review of the pilot’s logbook, with entries beginning July 1995, showed that the pilot started logging flights in the accident airplane in April 2017. The only aerobatics-related entry was on the first flight with that aircraft, with the remark "rolls." The last recorded flight was on April 17, 2019.
The pilot’s most recent third-class medical certificate was issued on August 28, 2008, at which time he reported no medications. He completed requirements for operation under BasicMed on February 25, 2019.
Toxicology Findings
The Macoupin County Coroner’s Office performed an autopsy and determined the cause of death as blunt force injuries. Toxicology testing detected ethanol at 0.01 grams per deciliter (gm/dL) in the pilot’s vitreous fluid, but no ethanol in blood samples analyzed by the FAA Forensic Sciences Laboratory. Ethanol can be produced postmortem by microbial activity. The FAA laboratory also detected the anticoagulant warfarin in liver and blood samples. Warfarin is a medication used to treat or prevent blood clots and is not considered impairing, but its use would require FAA observation.