Missouri Wing Cadet Solo Pilot Killed in Plane Crash

[Maj Ballard]

A cadet I know met this young man at NFA-P this year.

http://www.myfoxkc.com/myfox/pages/News/Detail?contentId=4248399&version=6&locale=EN-US&layoutCode=TSTY&pageId=3.1.1

NEAR UNION STAR, MO.  --  A family enjoying the Labor Day weekend narrowly avoided a plane that crashed in their backyard, killing the teenage pilot.

The pilot was Waylon Kirtley, 17 of Union Star, and had only 10 hours of flight training when he decided to take a solo run in his single engine Cessna Sunday afternoon. He crashed around 3:00 p.m. on County Road 223.

Janet Moore came outside to watch after she heard a plane flying close to her house.

"We saw him. It looked like he was showing off. He was coming really close maybe 100 feet off the ground and dropping down to 70 feet," said Moore.

Neighbors said the plane buzzed several homes in rural Andrew County near St. Joseph before something went wrong.

"He dipped like he was going to do a loop de loop. But, when he went up his tail went up and his nose went down and he went straight into the ground," said Moore.

"It was a big explosion and the ground kind of shook and the electricity went out."

The plane crashed just yards from a backyard swimming pool where two children had been playing moments earlier.

The plane burst into flames. In fact, there's not much left of the cockpit.

"The passenger compartment was burned. The outside of the plane was still in tact," said Cpl. Corey Root with the Missouri Highway Patrol.

Kirtley didn't have a pilot license but was by FAA guidelines legally able to fly solo because he had 10 hours of experience flying.
(3:55)
"If you want to get a hunting license it's eight hours in the state of Missouri. I found that a little surprising, it was only 10 hours to take a plane up by yourself," said Cpl. Root.

Neighbors believe Kirtley may have been flying low  to get the attention of a relative who lived just yards from where he crashed.

Missouri Highway Patrol said it believes Kirtley died instantly in the crash. The FAA is investigating the crash.

Kirtley received the Junior Officer of the Year award in November 2005 at the Missouri Wing Conference in Jefferson City.

[A.Member]

Very sad story.  My prayers are with the family and friends of that young man.

[SDF_Specialist]

This is a very infortunate event to happy to someone who was so young, and aspired to be a pilot. My thoughts and prayers are with family and friends of this cadet. May he rest in peace.

[CASH172]

It's very sad what happened, but they said 10 hours of flight time minimum before soloing.  The FARs say that as long as they have the medical and the appropriate endorsements, they can solo.  There's no time minimum. 

[alamrcn]

Kirtley received the Junior Officer of the Year award in November 2005 at the Missouri Wing Conference in Jefferson City.

Was this really the last line of the article? I'm not at all complaining the Civil Air Patrol wasn't mentioned... don't need this association... but it's kind of bad reporting/writing to throw this information in like everyone reading will know what "Wing Conference" means.

Also, everything is "just yards away" in the article - was this a VERY packed neighborhood or possibly a condo complex? As tragic as this is, the situation obviously could have been a LOT worse from the sounds of how many people where in very close proximity.

I hope the boy's family will be able to eventually cope with this accident. While I don't wish for other youth, cadets or not, to not have the opportunity to fly - maybe there is something that can change in the current laws and regulations to not allow something like this to happen to another young person.

Didn't someone last year crash their plane into a relative's home, killing everyone in plane and building?

-Ace

[mikeylikey]

So he was showing off, and he died.  Move on.  (My thoughts are with his family, and with those he ALMOST killed)

[Dragoon]

I'm aware of at least two other incidents of newly minted cadet solo pilots showing off by buzzing, and having bad things happen.

Happily, in neither of those cases did the plane crash.  But there were witnesses to them breaking FAA (and CAP) rules, and they got smacked pretty hard.

I think it's a youngster thing - after I soloed I was way too scared for the first 100 hours or so to even think about busting FAA regs or doing anything remotely risky.

[missanimalcracker]

My son was roommates with this boy at the National Flight Academy this past summer. What he was told was that he was doing a stall, went into a spin and hit the wrong rudder. He was not showing off.
  Mikeylikey, I don't know who you are, or how old you are, but you need to think before you type. What you wrote was horribly crass, that could have been you, or your son or daughter.. would you then "move on"?

[Pace]

My deepest condolences to the family of this young man.  I never like to see anyone lose their life in aviation (or anywhere else for that matter), especially when they're younger than me.

I've learned to take "eye witness testimony" about aircraft height with a grain of salt after one distress mission I participated in.  However, if that many people reported this young man was buzzing houses, I can take a guess that he probably wasn't concerned with coordination and regulations.  If he was legitimately practicing stalls and not buzzing houses, he was still in the wrong by FAR standards for maneuvering/recovering that low.  And even if it wasn't illegal, the chances of such an inexperienced pilot recovering from a spin at that altitude are pretty much 0.01% at best.

Regardless, this is a tragedy for the family and everyone who knew this cadet.  I just wish people would learn from the mistakes of others so this kind of needless loss could be avoided, especially among new pilots who don't yet understand the danger they're putting themselves in and the true limitations of their aircraft.

[JayT]

Blue skies buddy.

[mikeylikey]

My son was roommates with this boy at the National Flight Academy this past summer. What he was told was that he was doing a stall, went into a spin and hit the wrong rudder. He was not showing off.
  Mikeylikey, I don't know who you are, or how old you are, but you need to think before you type. What you wrote was horribly crass, that could have been you, or your son or daughter.. would you then "move on"?

Sorry, but the official story broadcast on FOX, MSNBC, CNN was that he was flying very low over a residential neighborhood, and "buzzed" a set of houses three (3) times, one of which was his girlfirends.  He then crashed. 

Like I already said, I feel for his family, and those that COULD have been killed by his stunt.  I don't give a darn what heresay you got from your son, I go by the officials reporting on the news.

[RiverAux]

Well, I wouldn't take news reports as gospel either. 

[Skyray]

Well, I wouldn't take news reports as gospel either. 

I am a certified aircraft accident investigator with more than fifty aircraft accidents that I have investigated as either an interested party or th representative of an interested party.  More likely than not, the media play up the sensational without regard to what actually happened.  Frequently they take off on a tangent that has nothing to do with the probable cause.  Using media reports to form an opinion is irresponsible.

[RogueLeader]

Note that he says what the officials say, not what they media says the official said.  A slight, yet very significant distinction.

I go by the officials reporting on the news.

[FARRIER]

Sorry, but the official story broadcast on FOX, MSNBC, CNN was that he was flying very low over a residential neighborhood, and "buzzed" a set of houses three (3) times, one of which was his girlfirends.  He then crashed. 

Like I already said, I feel for his family, and those that COULD have been killed by his stunt.  I don't give a darn what heresay you got from your son, I go by the officials reporting on the news.

All it said was that the FAA was investigating. Eyewitness testimony doesn't tell everything that was happening at the moment. Investigation of the wreckage, toxicolligy, etc, has to be completed first. Unless the FAA holds a press conference or releases a report, I would hold off on any condemnation of the cadet.

[James]

Do you (who are bickering) have that much time on your hands.
Send an Email to his Mother and stop this pettiness.

Also who is/was his light instructor? Haven't seen that anywhere in the news.

[alamrcn]

The FAA is always "investigating". I've come to think that it means someone from the FAA showed up at the scene, took some notes, couldn't find anyone to penalize or fine, and then went home.

You NEVER hear on the news, "The FAA has concluded their investigation."
I think all these FAA investigations go to a cold-case files warehouse. The NTSB however does make conclusions to an investigation, and sometimes while the incident is still "topic desure" on the news channels.

Three passes at a low altitude, above people the pilot new, and validated by multiple witnesses? Sounds pretty cut and dry to me that he wasn't just having mechanical difficulties. But someone make a calendar notation to check how the investigation is going... sometime in 2010, and we'll see if they figured it out yet.

-Ace