| Date: May 31, 1940 |
Survivors: none |
Fatalities: Konrads Nagainis |
Aircraft Involved: Bristol Bulldog |
Location: Spilve |
Details:
- Ltn. Nagainis had graduated as a pilot, and was involved in advanced pilot training in preparation for being assigned to a fighter squadron.
- His training assignment on the morning of May 31, 1940 was to complete a 1/2 hour aerobatic training flight at an altitude of
at least 2000 metres. The flight was to include practice recovering from a spin.
- About ten minutes into the flight Nagainis spun the aircraft. It was quickly evident to onlookers that he was having trouble, and
the spin became a flat spin from which there is little hope of recovery.
- The pilot baled out of the airplane, but for some reason the parachute failed to function and he fell to the earth. It is speculated that
he collided with the fuselage of the airplane as he climbed out of the cockpit and either he was disabled or the parachute mechanism
was damaged.
- The aircraft spun into the ground past the Spilve airfield, in the direction of Bolderaja. The pilots body was found nearby.
- Ltn. Nagainis, in the last Latvian funeral with military honors before the Soviet Occupation, was buried in Meza Kapi, in Riga.
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