Japanese Acro Ace's Death Still Inexplicable

Takahiro "Rock" Iwasaki was the first, and arguably the best, professional acrobatic pilot in Japan, and headed the nation's only civilian demonstration team, AiRock.

When Rock died in the April 21 crash of his Pitts Special, it seemed like one of those inexplicable things. Now the final report on his mishap has been released, and even though the commission made a determination of probable cause, their explanation is unlikely to persuade his legion of fans -- or stop the growth of his legend.

Rock's brightly painted plane -- a popular subject for Japanese plane modelers, with updated kits released annually as sponsors came and went, changing the team's decorations -- was on a routine practice flight, a near-daily ritual for aerobatic competitors. He was flying at about 500 feet when the plane turned and plunged into the ground. He may have been trying to conduct a split-S, but no one will ever really know what was on his mind.

The Pitts struck the ground hard in a nose-down attitude and collapsed to one side. Iwasaki was killed instantly by nonsurvivable deceleration forces. There was no fire, and the investigation found no preimpact deficiencies in the machine.

The special commission of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport -- Japan has so little GA activity that it does not have a standing accident investigation authority, unlike other developed nations -- found that pilot error was the most probable cause, but potential causal factors included Rock's hay fever, the medications he took to combat it, and even his nearsightedness.

Iwasaki, 53, a former JASDF fighter pilot, wore glasses. The commission speculated that he might have lost the glasses during hard maneuvering. Alternatively, his vision may have been blurred by hay fever, or he could have been made drowsy by antihistamines he took to combat the allergy.

Iwasaki loved to fly and to promote aviation in Japan. The nation was as air-minded as any before World War II, but the war saw devastation visited on Japan from the air, and the postwar period saw aviation completely banned. While Japan has world-class military and airline aviation these days, general aviation in the island empire never recovered. Rock Iwasaki and the Airock team brought the idea of flight to thousands every year.

Some may say that the Japanese character, or Japanese culture, produces people more oriented to consensus and amity than the sort of bumptious individualists that crave the freedom of flight -- but Rock Iwasaki's life and career gave the lie to this stereotype.

In the memorial that Iwasaki probably would have asked for, himself, the Airock team announced in May that they were going to continue, and they went on to continue to fly their airshow schedule. They have noted a phenomenon of Rock Iwasaki pictures, patches, t-shirts and all kinds of Rock ephemera showing up in vendor booths. "It probably means that Rock is participating in the airshow from the sky!" his teammates say.

It may have been an error, a momentary oversight, a lost pair of glasses that prematurely terminated the life of Takahiro "Rock" Iwasaki -- but whatever it was, it could only kill the man, not the legend.

FMI: www.airock.co.jp