Flight-Of-Six Encountered Turbulence Over Mountains

The close-knit Harmon Rocket community has been hit with another accident. A pilot flying from Mojave, CA to Bakersfield with a group of five other planes Saturday morning crashed in a vineyard west of the Tehachapi Mountains.

Friends identified the fallen pilot as Jasbir "Jess" Mallian. The Bakersfield Californian reports Mallian was part of a six-plane group who had flown from Bakersfield to Mojave earlier that morning for breakfast. The group was returning to Bakersfield Municipal when the accident occurred.

John Harmon, inventor of the Harmon Rocket -- a modified version of the Vans RV series of homebuilt aircraft -- was one of the pilots flying with the group. He says the pilots encountered "moderate" turbulence on the trip over the mountains.

"We came through a lot of turbulence coming and going," said Harmon. "All the way over and all the way back. There were 40- to 70-knot winds above the mountains," which Harmon guessed translated to ground speeds in excess of 220 knots.

Mallian hadn't complained of any ill effects from the winds -- either to himself, or to his brand-new Rocket II -- on the trip out, Harmon told the paper. Mallian was quiet on the radio during the trip back, he added; the last anyone saw of Mallian was when his plane passed another in the group.

"The only thing I can think of is that Jess hit his head on the canopy (in turbulence) and blacked out -- and the plane did what the plane was going to do," Harmon said.

The plane impacted a vineyard in the community of Arvin, southeast of Bakersfield, at around 0945 PST. Harmon said he had known and flown with Mallian for 15 years, and had helped him build his modified RV-4 (file photo of type, shown below). Mallian reportedly spent several years building his plane, and had less than 10 hours air time in it.

Saturday's accident was the second involving a Harmon Rocket in the Bakersfield area in three months. As Aero-News reported in December, a man and his 12-year-old passenger died during a sightseeing flight aboard a Rocket II. Witnesses told police that plane was flying at low altitude performing roll maneuvers when it impacted the ground.

FMI: www.faa.gov