Navy report shows no misconduct in fatal 2020 crash of NAS Whiting Field training aircraft

NAS WHITING FIELD — A U.S. Navy investigation into the 2020 crash of a T-6B Texan II single-engine turboprop training aircraft from Naval Air Station Whiting Field that killed a Navy instructor pilot and a Coast Guard student pilot has determined their deaths were "not due to misconduct or negligence."

Navy Lt. Rhiannon Ross and Coast Guard Ensign Morgan Garrett died on impact when their plane came down in a residential area near Foley, Alabama, on the afternoon of Oct. 23, 2020, as they were en route to a landing field east of the city.

Both aviators died from blunt-force trauma when the plane struck the ground upside down, according to an investigative report released recently by the Navy in response to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request.

Background:Navy begins investigation of fatal crash of NAS Whiting Field aircraft

Earlier:NAS Whiting Field aviators who died in Oct. 23 crash being remembered

While concluding there was no misconduct or negligence connected with the ill-fated flight, the report recommends that the Navy conduct briefings on "the procedures to execute in the event of an inadvertent departure from controlled flight" prior to every flight of a T-6B Texan II.

The report also recommends that the Navy "review, update and standardize" its training on ejection procedures for the T-6B Texan II.

Additionally, comments on the report from the commander of Training Squadron Two at NAS Whiting Field, to which the two aviators were assigned, indicate that he could not reach any conclusions on the circumstances leading to the crash.

Those comments from Coast Guard Commander Edward Ahlstrand were included in the Navy response to the FOIA request for documents related to the crash.

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In a review of the investigative report, Ahlstrand wrote that he could not reach any definitive conclusions in part because there apparently was no cockpit voice recording of the crash.

Ahlstrand also noted that the control configuration of the T-6B Texan II, which links the flight controls operated by the student and instructor pilot, meant that it was impossible to tell who was at the controls as the aircraft departed from controlled flight. 

Ross, who grew up in Michigan and had celebrated her 30th birthday just weeks before the crash, had flown for the Navy for more than six years and had been at NAS Whiting Field for nearly three years.

Garrett, 24 years old and a 2019 graduate of the U.S. Coast Guard Academy from North Carolina, had completed pre-flight training at Naval Air Station Pensacola in May 2020. 

Written comments on the investigative report from Navy leadership address what one of them, Rear Adm. Robert Westendorff, chief of Naval Air Training, called "three separate, incongruous actions of the aircrew."

Westendorff noted that Ross and Garrett — it is not clear which of them were at the controls at the time — stalled the aircraft (a condition in which smooth airflow over an aircraft's wings is interrupted, resulting in a loss of lift) as they approached the airfield near Foley, a circumstance "which is abnormal for that phase of flight."

Westendorff's review also notes that the two flyers "failed to initiate out-of-control flight procedures" after the stall and crashed 22 seconds later from an altitude of 3,800 feet.

Also, Westendorff notes that "despite the crew's time and altitude after stall entry, neither member-initiated ejection."

"... (T)aking appropriate action in these situations may have saved their lives," he concluded.  

Similarly, Marine Corps Col. Jeffrey Pavelko, commander of Training Air Wing Five at NAS Whiting Field, noted in his review the "... disastrous, perplexing end to this flight ..." as he also noted that a high-banked left turn preceding the stall, the lack of out-of-control flight procedures, and the failure to eject from the aircraft... remain unexplained ... ."

Ahlstrand also used the word "perplexing" in his comments. He also stated that it involved "what appeared to be a fully functional aircraft, operating in suitable weather, and in an area regularly used for a scheduled syllabus (training) event."

In comments on the lack of a cockpit voice recording of the flight — due apparently to limitations on the current equipment in the T-6B Texan II, which is difficult to reset between flights — Ahlstrand included a recommendation for "adapting the current DVR (digital voice recorder) installed equipment to provide daily continuous voice recording capability."

However, there was data available from the flight data recorder aboard the aircraft. In a brief reference to that data, Westendorff noted that it showed "the most likely scenario" for the crash was that the unusual turn initiated in the aircraft "evolved into an accelerated stall with ... no evident stall recovery input."

Ross was interred shortly after the crash at Barrancas National Cemetery in Pensacola.

Garrett, who was posthumously promoted to lieutenant junior-grade, was interred last year at Arlington National Cemetery.

She was remembered at the time by Coast Guard Adm. Charles Ray, vice commandant of the service, as someone who "... honored our service, she honored the naval aviation community, and every member of our nation’s military. We will learn from her accident, just as we learned from her life and how she lived it.”