A pilot who died in a plane crash Tuesday in Concord has been identified by the Contra Costa County Sheriff’s Office as Jacek Romanski, a 75-year-old Berkeley resident.
Romanski was the only person on board the Van’s RV-6 aircraft when it went down at about 10:30 a.m. at Concord Avenue and Diamond Boulevard, just south of Buchanan Field Airport and the adjacent Skylinks at Buchanan Fields Golf Course.
When the crash occurred, the plane struck a vehicle and its driver was taken to a hospital with a complaint of pain injury, Concord police said.
The crash is being investigated by the National Transportation Safety Board and the Federal Aviation Administration.
Thanks to Lorena Gomez for the photo.
Possibly he had a medical issue in flight?
An employee of mine witnessed the event. He said that right after take-off the engine quit and the pilot attempted a very steep turn in an effort to return to the airport. That resulted in a stall which was unrecoverable at such a low altitude.
My heart-felt sympathies to his family & friends.
This is commonly referred to as “the impossible turn”, but I suspect you already know that, but others might not. Instead of looking for a place to land after an issue at low altitude after takeoff, pilots just want to get back to the runway, make the sharp turn with little or no power, stall the wings and it’s over. Probably not a lot of choices for him to make, but there’s a lot of golf course right there…
Golf course might have been an even tighter turn at that point. Plus, it may have been occupied at the time. Still pretty darn amazing no ground casualties.
Clear skies and fair winds, Aviator. I’m sure he fought all the way.
Never try a steep turn when you don’t have airspeed. The wing on the inside of the turn has less wind flowing over it as a result of the turn and looses lift. The outside wing will have a little more airspeed and thus gains lift. If the inside wing looses enough lift then it stalls and your aircraft instantly flips.
Inside wing stalls also lead to the aircraft crashes in July 1984 that went into the Pontiac-Honda automobile dealership south of the airport and in December 1985 the aircraft that went into the roof of Sunvalley mall.
While Googling to see if my memory of the auto dealership crash was accurate I found that Cowellian has a page of local aircraft crashes. https://cowellian.wordpress.com/concord/buchanan-field/plane-crashes/
You sure it’s not Jack Romanksi? I looked up the plane’s registration number the day it happened and saw it was registered to Jack Romanski of Berkeley.
instead of “Jacek”
One article in another source said Jacek “Jack” so maybe he just shortened it to Jack to make it easier.
Really, Buchanan allows ‘experimental flights’ ?
DUCK & COVER !!!😳
Nothing experimental about it.
funny timing for an article, and not to lessen the accident but there is something to be said for checking out doing something you love.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13001031/homebuilt-plane-aircraft-FAA-crash-california.html
Dem Crisis actor perhaps?