![]() ![]() The 1940s-era N9M had been part of the historic fleet maintained by the Planes of Fame Air Museum at Chino Airport. “Shortly after, the airplane entered a steep right turn and descended into the ground in a nose-low attitude.” “Several witnesses said that after the maneuver, the airplane `wobbled from side to side’ before the canopy separated,” the agency stated. ![]() However, the narrative indicated Vopat had performed a “barrel roll.” Nothing conclusive was provided in the report. NTSB investigators reached the crash site the following day, and a preliminary report summarizing events followed 10 days later. “If it were not for the heroics of these two individuals, CRC would have lost numerous lives,” she said. They burn pretty quickly.”ĬRC Warden Cynthia Tampkins credited both Dickson and Vopat with actions intended for the preservation of life. ![]() Those dorms are World War II-era structures. “If the pilot would have hit 25 feet in any direction, the impact would have probably killed people, and then the burning fuel would have killed more. “The plane went down, literally, right beside a dorm,” Morales said. The consensus among the witnesses was that Vopat had desperately fought to keep the plane from going into the fully occupied structures within the prison perimeter. Morales said one of the men who dove for cover inside the box suffered superficial cuts, but was otherwise fine. Several Riverside County Fire Department engine crews reached the scene five minutes later and assisted with containment. “They had to let the fire burn itself out.” Throwing water on that makes it worse,” CDCR Lt. “The remains were composed of (wood) and magnesium. There were none.Ī prison fire crew comprised of inmate-trustees reached the location two minutes later and contained but did not immediately knock down the flames. The officer said he checked for signs of life in the remnants of the destroyed N9M. Fearing the flames would enter the enclosure, he again led the men out of harm’s way, jumping over the flaming debris to open space. Thankfully, no one was hit.”Īccording to Dickson, a “wall of flame” faced the men as they emerged from the box. “I didn’t see it, but I felt it, and there was large fiery debris going through the air. “Two to three seconds later, there was an impact,” the officer said. One of the engines was turning on and off, and the other was humming along nicely.”ĭickson estimated that the single-seat twin-engine plane, with both propellers mounted behind the cockpit, was 150 feet above the prison when “the pilot kind of did a loopy, flip-flop maneuver,” possibly trying to regain control of the ill-fated N9M. “I heard the airplane, and the sound caught my attention, so I looked up,” California Department of Corrections & Rehabilitation Officer Robert Dickson told City News Service. The National Transportation & Safety Board has not released its conclusions about what might have brought down the historic aircraft, but eyewitness accounts may provide insights. The Northrop N9M flying wing was on a post-maintenance flight and had just departed Chino Municipal Airport, piloted by 51-year-old David Michael Vopat of Chino, when it crashed within the fenced grounds of the California Rehabilitation Center on Fifth Street, just west of Interstate 15, on the afternoon of April 22, 2019. Vopat, 51, was killed, and one inmate suffered a minor injury.RIVERSIDE - An airplane that was the last of its kind went down a year ago Wednesday, taking the life of the pilot and nearly injuring inmates and staff at a Norco prison, under circumstances that federal aviation investigators are continuing to probe. The airplane then made a steep right turn and crashed into the outpatient housing yard of the California Rehabilitation Center. Witnesses told NTSB investigators that after the barrel roll, the airplane wobbled from side to side before the canopy fell off. Starting about 7 minutes after the airplane took off from Chino Airport, there was no response to several calls from the control tower, according to a review of the radio traffic. The crash happened shortly after noon on a sunny day in about 70-degree weather, the report said. The show is going on as scheduled, May 4 and 5 at Chino Airport. The aircraft could not be seen performing the maneuver in any of three videos reviewed of it flying at the Planes of Fame airshow in Chino in recent years. But the two-page document did not indicate whether pilot Dave Vopat intentionally performed the aerobatic maneuver or he lost control of the 1944 Northrop N9M Flying Wing.Ī barrel roll is sometimes described as a loop with a roll. The vintage airplane that crashed April 22 in Norco during a rehearsal for an air show did a barrel roll before it went down, according to the National Transportation Safety Board’s preliminary report on the incident. ![]()
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