Luscombe 8A accident at Laramie, Wyoming, 20 Sept 1943 (NC-41960)

Accident narrative

On September 20, 1943, a Luscombe 8A (NC 41960) crashed six miles west of Brees Municipal Airport in Laramie, Wyoming. The pilot, Alfred Saunders Pearsall, bailed out at a low altitude and was fatally injured.

Pearsall, a War Training Service Navy trainee with approximately 30 hours of flight time, departed at 2:20 p.m. to practice maneuvers, including right and left two-turn spins from 3,500 feet. At 3:00 p.m., an airborne instructor observed Pearsall's plane spinning at 2,000 feet and counted seven turns before impact. A witness on a nearby highway saw the pilot jump at an estimated altitude of 200 feet. The witness stated the parachute was partially open, while the airplane dove about 100 feet above the pilot before striking the ground nose-first in a nearly vertical position.

Investigators found no evidence of pre-impact aircraft failure. The parachute functioned normally but lacked time to fully open before the pilot struck the ground. Logbooks showed this was Pearsall's first solo spin practice, though he had received spin instruction on three previous flights. The investigation disclosed that the student had possibly not received sufficient instruction and that his instructor had been teaching an unconventional recovery technique. A CAA inspector subsequently flight-checked the instructor, Victor L. Follett, and two of his other students, finding the spin recovery technique of all three to be faulty.

The Civil Aeronautics Board determined the probable cause was the "pilot's failure to effect recovery from an intentional spin," with "questionable instruction in spin recovery" as a contributing factor.