Fatal crash of a Luscombe 8A (N2960K) on February 28, 2021, near Tailwinds Airport (FD15), Florida:

On February 28, 2021, at 1230 eastern standard time, a Luscombe 8E, N2960K, was substantially damaged when it was involved in an accident near Jupiter, Florida. The pilot was fatally injured and the pilot-rated passenger was seriously injured. The airplane was operated as a Title 14 Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) Part 91 personal flight. A witness reported that the engine sounded “strong” when the pilot and pilot-rated passenger took off from the 2,700-ft paved runway. Video of the takeoff showed a normal takeoff near the midpoint of the runway followed by a level-off about 30 ft above the ground. About that time the sound produced by the engine reduced in what appeared to be an attempt to land on the remaining runway. As the airplane passed in front of the camera, the front left engine cowl could be seen open and flapping. As the airplane proceeded to fly down the runway, the engine power increased, and the airplane began to climb. The airplane’s wings rocked left and right as the airplane climbed over the end of the runway and turned left before disappearing out of the camera’s view toward nearby trees. The airplane subsequently impacted trees and terrain about 700 ft beyond and to the left of the departure end of the runway. A postaccident examination of the airplane and test run of the engine revealed no evidence of any preimpact mechanical malfunctions or failures that would have precluded normal operation. The airplane’s engine cowling fasteners were unlatched, but otherwise intact and undamaged. A performance study based on video and ADS-B data revealed that, after departure, the airplane entered a climbing left turn during which it slowed to a calculated calibrated airspeed near its published stall speed. The turn, combined with the low speed, likely resulted in an exceedance of the airplane’s critical angle of attack and an aerodynamic stall. It is also likely that the engine cowling was not fully secured before the flight. Based on available information, it is likely that the pilot became distracted when the cowling opened during takeoff and did not maintain control of the airplane. The pilot’s post-mortem toxicology results indicated that at some point prior to the flight he had used cannabis. However, the absence of any active parent drug (delta-9-THC) or active metabolite (11-hydroxy-delta-9-THC) indicated that it was very unlikely that he was impaired by any effects from his use at the time of the accident. The detected level of cetirizine (a sedating antihistamine) in the pilot’s specimens was below the blood level thought to cause symptoms, though because the specimens were from cavity blood, they may not accurately reflect antemortem levels. Therefore, whether the pilot was impaired by effects from cetirizine and whether those effects contributed to his failure to secure the cowling and his distraction during the takeoff could not be determined. - Probable Cause: The pilot’s exceedance of the airplane’s critical angle of attack, which led to an aerodynamic stall and loss of control. Contributing to the accident was the pilot’s inadequate preflight inspection of the airplane, resulting in an unsecured engine cowl that likely distracted the pilot during takeoff.

Heartbreaking for sure. The man on the ground summed it all up when he said, "What are you doing, Larry?" Nothing more to say, except rest in peace, Larry. My condolences to his family and friends.

My flight instructor always said: Fly the plane first. A loose cowl is no reason to get excited. I had doors open on an old 152 all the time. The first time, I have to admit it did scare me a bit as it occurred just as we lifted off, but my instructor was with me and told me, "Just fly the plane. We'll close it when we get some altitude." Once we passed 1000', he side-slipped the plane and I closed the door. This was a very important lesson, as that old 152 had a tendency to open the door regardless of how well it was secured prior to takeoff. I must have closed it in flight half a dozen times while learning on that old bird (RIP N89158).

Larry saw the cowl flapping around, he reduced power to consider a landing. But there was no runway left. So next Larry decided to add partial power in an attempt to keep the airspeed low to protect the cowl from tearing off. While still low and slow and flying with reduced power, Larry, in an attempt to keep her in the air with minimum power inadvertently pulled too much elevator and into the deadly stall stick position. Which saw the critical AOA reached , stall and crash into harsh terrain. Larry stalled her in.

Took off once with the cowl not adequately secured (just one of the two clips) and had a lot of noise and made a safe landing. So many of these accident seem to be an inability to focus on flying the airplane rather than being distracted by the immediate problem.

My uncle was killed back in '69 in his Luscombe 8F in foggy weather. Flew it in to a mountainside north of SF Bay. Such a cool old airplane. May this pilot rest easy and his passenger recover completely.

Watching these you just try and learn as much as possible from every crash to be a safer pilot. Sad RIP

I would say he put the aircraft before himself. Perhaps tried to baby it back to a landing after he ran out of available runway, flew slow and used reduced power to try and minimise damage to the cowl. It's a strong instinct with some and makes for poor outcomes most times.

I have never replied to one of these flight videos because I'm not in the pilot's seat so even in tragedies, I try not to second guess the pilot decisions but learn from them. However, this video brought back some memories of when I was getting my private and departing for my long cross country and something similar happened to me in a Cessna 150. If you've never had an oil door come open on take-off, at least in a 150, it is a very sudden, loud and shocking noise. In my case, I will just say that even in the few seconds it took trying to diagnose and identify the problem, I had burned through my chance to return to the runway. I was flying off of a 3600-foot asphalt runway and after pushing the nose over and realizing I still had power, my only option was to keep flying the pattern. I won't bore you with the details and I acknowledge that I did not respond perfectly and there were lots of hesitations in the initial seconds but luck was with me that day. So, my thoughts go out to the pilot, passenger and their families. And I hope we can learn from this.

He forgot to fly the airplane … 🙏🏻🙋‍♂️🖖🏻

I'm not buying it. Magnetic compass once fell out of its mount shortly prior to rotation, fell down, and was stopped by its electric wiring (apparently there's a light in it) just before hitting my arm. I froze for a second and did not abort, but there was no way I would have been so distracted by the compass as to stall the airplane. I flew a lap around the pattern with it hanging and landed. That was a heavy box thrashing around on a wire inside of the cockpit, inches from my face. There is no way a cowling door somewhere outside would have produced that kind of effect.

Owned an 8a for 25 years .. They keep you humble

Fly the plane.

Horrible loss. Sad to see another enthusiast gone too soon. Proper training and situational awareness is key.

It is difficult to believe that an unsecured service door, as small and insignificant as it was, can cause such a rapid and complete loss of all of a pilot's stuffing.

Even now in the airlines - Aviate, navigate, communicate . Always that order , drummed into us

Reminds me of an accident in 1985 where a Lockheed Electra L-188 crashed shortly after takeoff in Reno, Nevada, killing 70 people. The flapping vibration made by an open air start access door (the size of a sheet of paper) distracted the flight crew, caused them to reduce power, and stall into a street.

Always always always do a good preflight, and touch the airplane. Flaps.Rudder,Elevators, Engine cowling! Please, please please! Weather check, here, there, and everywhere in between. WE DON'T WANT TO LOSE YOU!!!!

Looked like maybe he was trying to rock the cowl back down by jerking the plane side to side, while forgetting about gaining airspeed.

Owned an 8f fantastic little aircraft the cowl fasteners are somewhat recessed into the cowl and need a little care to make sure they are rotated fully ,or he may have simply forgot when distracted by something else ,looks like he panicked decide to go for a landing then changed his mind probably the runway length remaining, chose instead to fly away but didn’t apply full power ,looks like there’s trees at the end that he’s trying to pitch up and clear them with the inevitable stall ,just my take on it  RIP condolences to his family a very sad day.