NTSB: Halladay on drugs, doing stunts when plane crashed

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Baseball Hall of Famer Roy Halladay had high levels of amphetamines in his system and was doing extreme acrobatics when he lost control of his small plane and nosedived into the Gulf of Mexico in 2017, killing him, according to a National Transportation Safety Board report.

Halladay had amphetamine levels about 10 times therapeutic levels in his blood along with a high level of morphine and an antidepressant that can impair judgment as he performed high-pitch climbs and steep turns, sometimes within 5 feet (1.5 metres) of the water, the report Wednesday said of the Nov. 7, 2017, crash off the coast of Florida.

The manoeuvrs put loads of nearly two times gravity on the plane, an Icon A5 that Halladay had purchased a month earlier. On the last manoeuvr, Halladay entered a steep climb and his speed fell to about 85 mph (135 kph). The propeller-driven plane went into a nosedive and smashed into the water. The report said Halladay, 40, died of blunt force trauma and drowning.

The report did not give a final reason for the crash. That is expected to be issued soon.

“Yesterday’s NTSB report on Roy’s accident was painful for our family, as it has caused us to relive the worst day of our lives,” Halladay’s wife, Brandy, said in a statement Thursday. “It has reinforced what I have previously stated, that no one is perfect. Most families struggle in some capacity and ours was no exception. We respectfully ask that you not make assumptions or pass judgment.”

About a week before the crash, the former Toronto Blue Jays and Philadelphia Phillies star had flown the plane under Tampa Bay’s iconic Skyway Bridge, posting on social media, “flying the Icon A5 over the water is like flying a fighter jet!”

Halladay, an eight-time All-Star and two-time Cy Young Award winner, pitched a perfect game and a playoff no-hitter in 2010. He played for the Blue Jays from 1998 to 2009 and for the Phillies from 2010-13, going 203-105 with a 3.38 ERA. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame posthumously last year.

Halladay had taken off from a lake near his home about 15 minutes before the crash, and a previous report said he was flying at about 105 mph (170 kph) just 11 feet (3.3 metres) above the water before he started doing his manoeuvrs. He had about 700 hours of flight time after getting his pilot’s license in 2013, the previous report said, including 51 hours in Icon A5s, with 14 in the plane that crashed. The report said Halladay was treated for substance abuse twice between 2013 and 2015.

Rolled out in 2014, the A5 is an amphibious aircraft meant to be treated like an ATV, a piece of weekend recreational gear with folding wings that can easily be towed on a trailer to a lake where it can take off from the water.

The man who led the plane’s design, 55-year-old John Murray Karkow, died while flying an A5 over California’s Lake Berryessa on May 8, 2017, a crash the NTSB attributed to pilot error.

Because of that crash, Icon issued guidance to its owners two weeks before Halladay’s accident saying that while low-altitude flying “can be one of the most rewarding and exciting types of flying,” it “comes with an inherent set of additional risks that require additional considerations.”

It added that traditional pilot training focused on high-altitude flying “does little to prepare pilots for the unique challenges of low altitude flying.” Icon told the NTSB that Halladay had received and reviewed the guidance.

There was no indication in the report Halladay received low-altitude training.

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This story has been corrected to show that Halladay crashed into the Gulf of Mexico, not Tampa Bay.

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Terry Spencer, The Associated Press