September 23, Watertown, Ct. / Starduster Too

At 13:30 eastern time, a homebuilt Starduster Too struck trees while maneuvering near Watertown. The student pilot was seriously injured. Witnesses reported the airplane flying at an altitude estimated as 150 to 500 feet agl at a high rate of speed. They said the airplane made high-speed, steep turns at low altitude. A city police officer reported seeing the airplane performing low-altitude aerobatics. The pilot said his attention was distracted while he was trying to tune his handheld radio to the AWOS frequency and he flew into the trees. The pilots logbook contained 31.7 hours of flight experience, 17.9 hours of which were in the Starduster Too.