Primary finding
Probable cause
The pilot's alcoholic impairment of efficiency and judgement which resulted in his attempt to perform aerobatics at night in hilly terrain at an altitude inadequate for terrain clearance.
Investigator assessment
Analysis narrative
A witness said that he heard the engine 'revving and pulling up real hard.' he ran out on his porch and observed the airplane 'going straight up and did a loop.' the airplane came back down, and again went straight up in the sky. He noticed that the landing lights 'hit the cloud deck.' another witness stated that he could see the silhouettes of all the mountain tops in the area by natural light. The pilot did not have a current medical or biennial flight review. The pilot's toxicological results were positive; 73 mg/dl of ethanol detected in the liver, and 180 mg/dl of ethanol detected in the kidney. A broken 1/2 gal plastic bottle of whiskey was found in the main wreckage. The pilot's driver's license had been suspended twice in 1992 for excessive alcohol levels.
Source record
Factual narrative
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