20150914016849A

Aircraft took off parallel to runway 23 to fly pattern for banner pickup. Once airborne, the PIC unsecured the banner tow cable at cockpit and dropped in preparation for banner pickup.

Witness saw tow cable whip and wrap around horizontal stabilizer and elevator prior to banner pickup. When banner pickup was successful, cable tightened around elevator and horizontal stabilizer resulting in loss of elevator control with down force on trailing edge of elevator.

Descended with banner in trail. Attempt to release banner was apparent: cable disconnected from tow hook, but caught on control surface structure.

Aircraft impacted ground in water just out from beach sand at shoreline.

The following is a statement from the pilot ( as stated to ops inspector), edited to fit in the available space:

I remember everything about the accident, the whole thing. I was wide awake for the whole thing. Basically, I have about 1300 hours in the airplane I wrecked. I started my business with that plane. It was my baby. I had a personalized banner on sept 14, at 430PM. I had to be in duck at 450PM. So I had plenty of time.

I took off. My plane is equipped with 3 banner hook releases. For safety we use the center hook release. The reason is the likelihood of a problem when you throw the hook out is small.

We drop the hook to prevent what happened. The cable is 17.5 feet long.

This should not have happened. When I drop the hook, we side step away from the runway, we drop the hook, out the left. I checked my hook by making sure it was flying right, off the release. For some reason when I let the hook out, it rebounded and wrapped around the right stabilizer and elevator.

When I looked out the left hand mirror, it looked like it was flying right to me. Its burned in my memory like that.

One of my old students and biz partner, saw the hook hanging from the tail and couldnt reach a radio.

As I hooked the banner, I looked back, and hit the release before I got to the top of the climb. The release hook worked, but the d ring actually got jammed between the elevator and the horizontal stabilizer.

The aircraft pitched down violently. I was climbing with full power and kept full power in and once I realized there was no way of getting it to release, I realized that I had no choice but to go straight forward, I pulled the power back, and went into the water. Had I made any other attempts, it would have been worse. Thats how I ended up in the water.

When I hit the water, the plane hit level, but it caught, and the gear ripped off on the left side. It basically was a ground loop in the water, and spun the plane around. The plane came to a stop with the right hand side up, and 45 degree angle in the water. I couldnt get out and one of the terminal employees was on me before I hit the water, and pulled me out of the plane. I hit the dash several times. I am missing my 4 front teeth, several facial fractures in my face. Im lucky. I shouldnt have walked away.

Inspector asked, "were you wearing a shoulder harness?"

Ms. Hawk replied, "that airplane has hooker harnesses. I did a lot of aerobatic rides in that plane. I mustve had it loose enough to look around. If I had've had it tight, I may have broken my neck."

Inspector asked if Ms. Hawk had a biannual flight review?

She replied,"yes". Timothy bessel biannual in may 2015. He is martinaire pilot." "I have 1300 in make/model.

In the 90 days before crash: 300". "I had plenty of rest before event. I had family in town, had dinner, and plenty of sleep. All I had to do was tow the banner."

When asked if there was anything she believes she could have done differently, MS. Hawk replied,"I had plenty of time to think about the accident, and I believe the fabrication and use of a secondary banner release mechanism aft of the grapple would save lives."

Update: pilot interviewed by phone on 10/15/2015 see narrative and in person on 10/22/2015.