Luscombe 8F N2054B

Summary

On 18 July 2021 at about 01:40 local time, a Luscombe 8F registered N2054B was involved in an accident near Comstock, Texas, United States. One person was on board and one died. The aircraft was destroyed. The NTSB has published a probable cause for this accident; it is quoted in full below.

Date

18 July 2021 at 01:40

Classification

Accident

Location

Comstock, Texas, United States

Coordinates

29.6406, -101.0612

Aircraft

Luscombe 8F

Registration

N2054B

Category

Airplane

Year built

1949

Engines

1

Operator

Not recorded

Operating rule

Part 91: General Aviation

Purpose of flight

Personal

Phase of flight

Not recorded

Route

Del Rio → Unknown

Aircraft damage

Destroyed

Weather

VMC

Light

Dusk

NTSB number

CEN21FA327

1 person died.

Impact with terrain for reasons that could not be determined based on the available information.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record. This site does not paraphrase or interpret it.

Read the full NTSB narrative

The pilot departed on a personal flight, and the wreckage was located about 20 nautical miles from the departure airport by the property owner. There were no witnesses to the accident. Recorded data showed that, after maneuvering over the area of the accident site for about 6 minutes, the airplane entered a near-vertical descent. The airplane impacted terrain and was destroyed. The wreckage was consistent with a wings-level, near-vertical impact. Postaccident examination revealed no mechanical anomalies that would have precluded normal operation. Toxicology testing of the pilot identified ethanol. The large discrepancy among the ethanol levels in muscle, heart, and liver indicates that at least some of the detected ethanol was likely from sources other than consumption. Notably, the severity of injury made postmortem microbial ethanol production more likely, and the detectable n-propanol and n-butanol in muscle and heart indicate likely postmortem microbial activity in these tissues (although such activity does not always produce ethanol). Although at least some of the detected ethanol was likely from sources other than consumption, the available ethanol results are insufficient to exclude the possibility that consumed ethanol may have exerted impairing effects on the pilot, particularly given that diphenhydramine was also detected. Like ethanol, diphenhydramine may exert impairing sedative effects, and such effects may combine with those of ethanol. There is insufficient medical and operational evidence to determine whether ethanol or diphenhydramine caused impairment that contributed to the accident.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record.