The Australian Transport Safety Board has determined that a Spitfire replica that crashed at the 2013 Parafield Air Show stalled in a turn.
The 80% scale Spitfire Mk XXVI VH-VSF was positioning itself for landing after a flying display when in crashed into a street, fatally injuring the pilot.
After seven passes, the pilot was positioning the aircraft to intercept final approach when the accident happened.
According to the report released yesterday, the ATSB found "that while coordinating a landing clearance with air traffic control and flying a low level circuit with a close downwind and base in turbulent conditions, the pilot inadvertently allowed the airspeed to decay. In the subsequent turn (downwind) to adjust the circuit the aircraft aerodynamically stalled, descended steeply, and impacted the ground.
"The aircraft was prone to aerodynamically stall with little or no aerodynamic precursors and it was not fitted with a stall warning device, increasing the risk of inadvertent stall."
The full report can be downloaded from the ATSB website.