Pilot still missing after 2015 crash off Blackpool coast
A pilot who crashed on a flight from the Isle of Man to Blackpool may have stalled his aircraft too low to the ground to recover, a report’s found.
The Air Accident Investigation Branch has concluded its investigation after the Rockwell Commander ditched in the sea off Lancashire last December.
In its findings, the AAIB says the weather conditions that day were very challenging – especially as the pilot wasn’t qualified to fly by instruments alone.
The body of 73 year old Ian Stirling from Douglas, the only person aboard the aircraft, still hasn’t been discovered.
The AAIB’s report says Mr Stirling was probably just a few hundred feet up when his plane stalled shortly after 9am on December 3, giving him little chance to recover.
It says low cloud that day may have disoriented him – and the pilot of a military aircraft involved in the ensuing search said it wasn’t a day to be flying at low level over the sea.
As well as that, the AAIB says Mr Stirling seemed uncertain about landing his aircraft when he spoke to Blackpool Airport’s traffic controller.
And although experts said the engine was producing power when it hit the sea, a technical fault or failure, or some other external influence, can’t be ruled out entirely.
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