I'm on pins and needles here.  I know what plane it is and who normally flies it.  I hope it is not him.  Fuck!

Mark Yaggie from the Breckenridge Minnesota area.

Yep.


RIP Mark.  

Another good man lost in the warbird community.  Prayers to his kids and his family.  




What a shit sandwitch.

I'm following your thread in GD as well. What's your assessment? Base-final stall or impossible turn? Ground loop while ditching?

I'm not an investigator.  But.

In my opinion, it was either a partial power loss or complete power loss while trying to make the airport.  It looks to be a right wing low impact into a cartwheel.  The plane is facing 180 from it's initial heading and the engine is 30 feet or so behind the tail in the corn field.

The whole firewall back to the instrument panel is ripped off of the plane.  Panel and all gauges and instrument panel is hanging by the wires outside of the left side of the cockpit.

The seat is exposed and has blood in it.

Viewed from an overpass east of the site,  This gives you an idea of the lay of the land.  He impacted the ground about 5 to 10 feet from the ditch and the plan looks to have done a right wing low cartwheel flinging the engine over the tail and ripping the firewall,  instrument panel, cowl and motor mount free.
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4258/34866174104_b4762e6e0f_o.jpg

View as I was walking to the scene from the west.
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4071/34866169484_7d5cb28fe5_o.jpg

https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4281/35707491505_5d21870bd5_o.jpg

https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4021/34897855403_7a336b0625_o.jpg

The next few are mildly graphic.  
Click To View Spoiler
Click To View Spoiler

This one leads me to believe there was an engine problem.  I will keep this one in the mildly graphic category.  There is a lot of oil spray from the engine separation,  but there is what looks like a lot of carbon and oil spray that looks to have been prior.  
Click To View Spoiler

Thank you for posting this. Can you clarify your interpretation of the impact? Does it look like the engine was thrown past the the airframe, or was it left behind? In other words, was the airplane heading towards the ditch on the right side of your first photograph, or did it come from there? If the former, does it look like the pilot attempted to ground-loop to avoid the ditch; if the latter, does it look like he was trying to clear it or did he hit it, causing it to cartwheel?

The stall speed of the T-28 doesn't appear to be all that high, but how are the engine out glide/flare characteristics? There's a video here of a T-28 ditching with mechanical issues at Albert Whitted airport from a few years ago (both pilots survived with minor injuries): http://www.military.com/video/military-aircraft-operations/crash-landings/t-28-trojan-crashes-in-florida/870973398001

In the above video, while the pilot claims to have pushed it in to avoid the seawall, it looks like they barely avoided a stall and there was a high sink rate when they hit with a high pitch angle. The mains hit and it looks like that caused it to flip.

ETA: Also, please excuse the technical nature of these questions and don't take it insensitivity.

Thanks for posting, and sorry again you lost an acquaintance in the accident.  Makes it that much more difficult seeing the blood on the canopy and seat.   Given the busted glass I'm assuming head trauma, so hopefully minimal suffering and pain.

He was travelling right to left in the picture.

Again I am no expert in crash investigation.  But it looks to me like he stalled it trying to clear the interstate, weigh station road and ditch embankment.  

I believe the engine was tossed to it's location.  There was no damage to the corn leading to it's resting place.

The plane looks to have hit hard right wing low and nose low leaving what looks like an imprint in the corn and dirt in the shape of the plane.  The area was strewn with parts.  


He cleared the side of the ditch by feet.  


I am assuming he was impaled by the plexiglass when his head impacted the canopy.  

Sadly there is blood patterns that look as if he was alive long enough to try to open the canopy.  There is blood spray on the right side outsde of the fuselage and a lot of spray on the rear dash over the intruments.  


I did not see any landing gear present.  It looks like he may have tried to do a gear up ditching.

Eta to correct direction.  Sorry. Long couple days.

Here is a phone pic to show some of the impact area.  
Attached File



The plane was removed sometime between last night and this morning. I cannot get any more crash photos.

That makes 41 friends and acquaintance pilots killed in my 43 years of flying...

damn

RIP
Would that aircraft get rebuilt? I know if it was a P51 it certinaly would as it dosen't look that bad.
Guess the supply and demand of T28's would decide.

Local insurance company owner had one years ago when I started flying. Big Blue Navy color. Oil streaks down the side always.
Must of ate him out of house and home because not long after he traded down to a T34 which he flew for decades.

RIP.

http://www.inforum.com/news/4295689-it-does-weigh-us-warbird-accidents-sting-aviation-community

Spoke today with one of the first people on the scene and a witness.  

I wish I hadn't heard what was said.  


Marks plane clipped a light pole at the weigh station, severing the right wing from the root.

The plane cartwheeled and came to a stop.  

This is where it gets hard to hear.

The witness was talking to him.  Supposedly Mark said. "I've lived to fly another day".  Then bled to death be cause it took ems 45 minutes to get to him in the field.  The plane was 200 yards from interstate and less than 100 from the weigh station road.   Frustrating.

Fuck, im so sorry. Thats unreal

Sorry. Was it something a TQ could of fixed?

I cannot say for sure.  There was a LOT of blood spatter inside and outside of the plane.  Judging by the spatter he was either flailing around or it was an arterial bleed.  

The EMS and fire could not find their way to the accident site.  It took me less than 10 minutes to walk there on a field road and cross a bone dry drainage ditch,  and would have taken me about 3 to have parked in the weigh station and step over the waist high fence and through the ditch.

I will not fault the EMS.  They did what they thought best to get to the scene.  But Damn it.  It is frustrating.  Especially since this crash site is in the same location (within about 200 yds) that they have been to in the recent past for another fatal crash.  


I Knew he bled out just by looking at the scene.  The bloody swipes on the canopy from trying to slide it back being the most obvious.  But to hear he was talking and what he said only to bleed to death is hard to swallow.

that's brutal, i'm sorry for you, his family, and the community for his loss.  It's been a long time but there's a good chance i saw him in the air at a show sometime over the years.  i used to be quite the airshow rat and i'd hit 3 a year for a number of years around michigan.