N3703MPiper PA-12

On July 16, 2022, about 0935 eastern daylight time, a Piper PA-12, N3703M, was substantially damaged when it was involved in an accident near Middle Township, New Jersey. The commercial pilot was fatally injured. The airplane was operated as a Title 14 Code of Federal Regulations Part 91 banner-tow flight.

According to the operator, who witnessed the accident, the pilot was hired about 2 months before the accident. The airplane was fueled to capacity before to the flight. On the accident flight, the pilot departed runway 32 and flew a left traffic pattern to pick up the banner at the approach end of runway 14, which was normal procedure. The airplane descended toward the banner, but missed the haul line during the pickup attempt. The airplane then climbed nose-high and stalled, spinning right and impacting the runway. Engine noise was consistent throughout the accident sequence.

Another witness stated that he was seated in an airplane, with the engine running, waiting to take off next and pick up a banner. He observed the accident airplane come down between the poles, miss the banner, and the accident pilot made a really “hard snap,” climbing almost vertically. It looked to the witness as though the accident pilot "kicked rudder" at the top of his climb to see if he had picked up the banner. The witness added that he believed this caused the right wing to come out from the slipstream, resulting in an aerodynamic stall.

The wreckage came to rest nose-down, oriented about a 320° magnetic heading, and no debris path was observed. The wreckage remained intact. Both wings exhibited leading edge damage and buckling, with the left wing exhibiting more damage than the right. The ailerons remained attached to their respective wing. The empennage remained intact and was canted right. Flight control continuity was confirmed from all flight control surfaces to the cockpit. Measurement of the horizontal stabilizer trim jackscrew corresponded to a nose-down trim position; 14 threads were observed, with 17 threads being full nose-down and 1 thread being full nose-up. The cockpit area was crushed, but the pilot’s 4-point harness remained latched and was cut by rescue personnel.

The engine remained attached to the airframe and the propeller remained attached to the engine. One propeller blade remained undamaged, while the other exhibited s-bending and leading-edge gouging. The top spark plugs were removed from the engine. Their electrodes were intact and gray in color, except for the No. 4 spark plug, which was oil soaked. The rocker covers were removed and oil was observed throughout the engine. Both magnetos were removed from the engine and sparked at all leads when rotated by hand. When the propeller was rotated by hand, crankshaft, camshaft, and valvetrain continuity were confirmed to the rear accessory section of the engine and thumb compression was attained on all cylinders. The carburetor butterfly valve was in the open position. The carburetor floats and needle remained intact and the fuel screen was absent of debris.

FAA publication FS-I-8700-1 (Rev. 1), “Information For Banner Towing Operations” stated:

…Stalls during the banner pickup procedure constitute one of the more frequent causes of banner towing operational accidents. A stall occurs when an airfoil reaches a critical angle of attack (AOA) and is a function of wing loading, independent of airspeed. In fact, an excessively abrupt rotation of an airplane during a pickup, or a snap or steep turn after a missed pickup, may be sufficient to precipitate an accelerated stall…