NTSB Prelim N29678 AT6-D Bronson FL 13 April 2026

Ajouté : 2026-06-03

[00:00:00]The NTSB preliminary report is out on the AT6 crash that occurred on 13th April near Bronson, Florida while practicing formation training exercises prior to the Sun and Fun flyin. My name's Juan Brown. You're watching the Blanco channel. Let's check it out.

[00:00:18]Killed in the crash was Justin Westbrooks who was receiving the training in the AT6D. Looks like he started his training flying career at 2009 Embry Riddle and pretty quickly got on with Delta Airlines and was a Czech airman on a 7576 aircraft at Delta Airlines. The aircraft involved in the accident was an AT6D November 29678 with its known stall characteristics and spin characteristics.

[00:00:48]This formation training is normally conducted by the NATA North American Training Association to provide a standardized level of formation training to civilian pilots who have not gone through military formation training or prior military pilots that need to refresh their formation training skills.

[00:01:07]And they have these clinics throughout the country all year long. And this is the first fatality that NATA has had during one of these formation training clinics. Formation training normally consists of fingertip flying, echelon turns, pitch outs, rejoins, and sometimes trail formation where you chase each other around in a trail formation. And it was during this trail formation at the end of the training sequence that this accident occurred.

[00:01:41]Now on to the NTSB preliminary report.

[00:01:44]This accident occurred on 13 April 2026 about 1536 Eastern Daylight Time. The AT6 Delta November 29678 Part 91 flight. The accident occurred near Bronson, Florida. Two pilots on board that aircraft fatally injured and it was Fart 91 instructional flight.

[00:02:02]That was the instructional flight formation instructional flight with the help of the North American Training Association.

[00:02:10]The accident pilot was undergoing a formation flight checkout at the time of the accident. The accident airplane was the second airplane in a two airplane formation flight. They departed Williston, Florida about 1510, proceeded northwest at an altitude of about 3,000 ft MSL. The pilot of the lead plane reported that both airplanes completed a formation sequence. Then they began their return to the airport with the accident airplane in extended trail formation about 1/2 mile behind the lead airplane. So it's extended trail not closed trail but extended trail 1 half mile. Now the question for NATA was this part of the briefing was this part of the plan for this formation flight because all formation flights are pre-briefed and pre-rehearsed uh prior to the formation.

[00:03:00]especially during a training exercise.

[00:03:03]As the formation descended through 2700 ft MSL on a southerntherly heading, the lead airplane performed two 180°ree direction changes, then completed two circles that terminated in a 30° climb and a 30°ree bank altitude. So, you're you're turning and burning is what you're doing. Chasing each other around in a tail chase trail formation. The lead pilot observed the accident airplane in a nose high attitude as it banked right. The lead pilot then diverted his attention momentarily to clear his turn, then subsequently observed the airplane in a steep 80°ree nose down descent. As the airplane as the accident airplane continued to descend below approximately 1,000 ft MSL, it rolled right about three and a half times. Justin had departed controlled flight and had entered a spin. The lead pilot reported the accident airplane appeared to be recovering from the descent just before it impacted with terrain which was followed by post impact fire. Okay, so Justin was recovering from the spin but got himself into a secondary stall just prior to impacting the ground. And this is a common problem because of the panic factor of the ground rushing up at you. As you're beginning your recovery, as you see that ground coming up, you're going to pull that stick beyond the stick stall stick position and aggravate that and exceed the critical angle of attack of the wing and stall the aircraft a second time.

[00:04:43]And the air and the AT6 has a quite sudden stall characteristic. And that's by design because this is a World War II training aircraft that's going to train these aircraft, train these pilots to for P-51s and Corsairs, all of which have very nasty stalling characteristics.

[00:05:02]All major components of the airplane were accounted for at the accident site.

[00:05:06]Flight control continuity was confirmed to all flight control surfaces through control cables that were fractured consistent with overload separations. So in other words, there was nothing wrong with the airplane that they could find at this time during this preliminary report.

[00:05:20]Quick review of the AT6 stall characteristics here on Scott Purdue's channel on his um video flying the T6 Texan dark corner spins.

[00:05:34]The left wing drops off rather abruptly and it enters a spin quite readily in the AT6 once you exceed exceed the critical angle of attack and have just the slightest bit of yaw.

[00:05:48]But at the same time, the aircraft can recover fairly quickly, but is going to lose a tremendous amount of altitude in the process. And if you pull that stick hard, even though the nose is straight down, remember, you can stall an airplane at any attitude and any air speed, but only one critical angle of attack. Even if you've got that nose pointed straight down, and you see that ground rushing up, and you exceed the critical angle of attack by honking on that elevator, you're going to start a secondary stall and spin right into the ground. And that's the natural human instinct when you see the ground rushing up to you. Formation flying is an extremely perishable skill. That is to say, you need to stay current and qualified in formation flying. You need to be professionally trained in formation flying using the kind of training that NATA offers you or the US military and it requires the utmost in respect and discipline. Thank you so much for your support of this channel, especially the folks over on Patreon that make this content possible. See you here.