That's terrifying. My sympathy for the family and friends of the pilot and wing walker.

Has the NTSB identified the cause? Something had to break - unless the pilots hand came off the stick for an instant or he thought he was too low and tried to turn back...or any combination of a dozen things I suppose.

I've watched that clip several times now. I am not able to identify the cause, although it does appear to be some kind of a control failure. It also looks a lot like a stall at the very end.

Flying too damn low. No air under him to recover.

quote:

Originally posted by D Humbarger:
Flying too damn low. No air under him to recover.

Yep! Also looked like he was "mushing" down creating negative G's, and unless he had a fuel injected engine, his carburetor charged radial engine would have fuel starved and lost power, resulting in a stall and "creaming-in". The same reason WWII Allied pilots couldn't fly inverted vs Axis pilots for extended periods.