Accident Details
On February 15, 2023, at about 1730 Pacific standard time, an unregistered Star Lite SL-1 airplane was destroyed when it impacted terrain near Corning, California. The student pilot was fatally injured. The flight was conducted as a personal flight under Title 14 Code of Federal Regulations Part 91.
The airplane's owner stated that he and the accident pilot had been taking turns flying the traffic pattern at Corning Municipal Airport (0O4). The owner completed five or six takeoffs and landings before switching with the pilot. The pilot flew one pattern and landed without incident. On the second flight, the pilot took off from runway 35 and performed what the owner described as an aerobatic barrel roll. According to the owner, the pilot appeared to pull out of the roll too slowly while in a nose-down attitude and attempted an aggressive recovery. As airspeed increased, the left wing separated, and the airplane crashed.
Another witness provided a statement consistent with the owner's account. The wreckage came to rest in an orchard about 0.5 miles southwest of the airport, with debris scattered over a 90-yard radius. The left wing was located about 60 yards northwest of the main wreckage. The owner discarded the wreckage before an examination could be conducted.
Pilot Information
The pilot held a student pilot certificate and a third-class medical certificate, issued in September 2021. At that medical examination, he reported 120 total hours of flight experience, with 45 hours in the previous six months. No medications were reported. No pilot records were located, and his total flight experience at the time of the accident was not determined.
According to the pilot's wife, he had recently been diagnosed with bipolar disorder and was being treated for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). No further details regarding his health conditions or symptoms were available.
Toxicology Findings
An autopsy attributed the cause of death to acceleration-deceleration polytrauma. The FAA Forensic Sciences Laboratory performed toxicology testing on postmortem specimens. Amphetamine was detected in cavity blood at 149 ng/mL and in liver tissue at 144 ng/g. Bupropion was detected in cavity blood at 40 ng/mL and in liver tissue at 38 ng/g. Hydroxybupropion was detected in cavity blood at 122 ng/mL and in liver tissue at 1345 ng/g.
Amphetamine is a prescription controlled substance used for ADHD, narcolepsy, and obesity, but carries warnings about impaired driving and potential to precipitate mania in bipolar disorder without mood stabilizers. Bupropion is used for depression and smoking cessation, and its metabolite hydroxybupropion was also found. Bupropion use was unacceptable for pilots at the time of the accident and the final FAA medical case review.
Aircraft Information
The airplane was an unregistered Star Lite SL-1. The owner had purchased it three to four months before the accident, believing it to be in the ultralight category. He did not provide maintenance records. The owner stated the airplane was not aerobatic-capable.