A gyrocopter that crashed into a canal near Selby most likely had its brake still applied, an investigation has found.
The pilot ditched the aircraft into the water shortly after taking off from the airstrip at Great Heck on 15 September last year.
Now the Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) has issued its report into the cause of the incident.
The pilot, aged 76, who survived the crash uninjured, did his pre-flight checklist on the afternoon of the flight.
“Whilst pre-rotating the rotor, he realised he had forgotten his pen and sun cap,” the report states. “He shut down the engine, applied the rotor brake, and exited the gyrocopter to get them.”
After returning to the gyrocopter, he took off “and the gyrocopter initially climbed away, before starting to descend as it flew towards a canal which ran perpendicular to the end of the runway.
“The pilot reported being startled by the descent and, as he could not fly over a line of trees ahead of him and there was a railway line to his left, he turned right to fly into wind along the canal.
“The canal banks were too narrow to land on without striking foliage, so the pilot decided to ditch in the canal.
“The main rotor struck the canal bank and detached during the ditching. The aircraft sank but the pilot escaped via the passenger door as the pilot’s door was wedged against the canal bank.”
The pilot believed he left the rotor brake applied when he took off which caused the gyrocopter to descend.
“He said that had he re-started his checklist from the beginning, he would have remembered to check that the rotor brake was disengaged before pre-rotating the rotor.”
The gyropcopter was not fitted with a rotor brake warning light.
In its conclusions, the AAIB says: “Performing checklists without interruption is important on all aircraft types.
“In this case, the interruption caused by needing to exit the aircraft probably resulted in the rotor brake being left applied.”