A pilot’s use of marijuana contributed to a 2014 crash in Durango that killed him and a flight instructor, the National Transportation Safety Board said in a report this week.
“The pilot’s failure to compensate for the high-performance airplane’s tendency to enter a torque roll during the initial climb … resulted in the airplane entering a torque roll and the subsequent loss of control at too low of an altitude to recover,” the board wrote in a probable cause report. “Contributing to the pilot’s failure to compensate for the airplane’s tendency to enter a torque roll was his impairment from tetrahydrocannabinol (THC, the active compound in marijuana).”
On July 4, 2014, John Earley, 51, of Durango crashed a World War II aircraft moments after taking off from Durango-La Plata County Airport. He and his flight instructor, Michael Schlarb, 53, also of Durango, died in the crash.
According to a NTSB investigation, Earley’s blood tested positive for 6.3 nanograms of THC, above the legal driving limit.
No alcohol or drugs were found in the blood of Schlarb, who was teaching Earley how to fly the difficult-to-operate aircraft.
“It obviously makes this a whole different type of crash,” Schlarb’s wife, Mona, told The Durango Herald in July when the NTSB’s first report on marijuana use was issued. “This was a terrible chance to take with two lives at stake.”
Earley purchased the notoriously challenging P-51 Mustang aircraft for more than $1 million in 2013.
La Plata County Coroner Jann Smith said Earley’s level of tetrahydrocannabinol carboxylic acid (THC-COOH, an inactive metabolite of marijuana) was at 30.8 nanograms, which usually indicates the drug was used fairly recently before the blood was tested.
Check back at durangoherald.com for updates.
NTSB Probable Cause report (PDF)
