The pilot was conducting a test flight to renew the aircraft’s Permit to Fly. While climbing away from the runway, the aircraft was observed to bank to the right and then descend steeply to the ground.
It was not possible to definitively determine the cause of the accident. It is possible that the engine stopped producing power due to carburettor icing which led to a stall from which the aircraft was not able to recover. The investigation also identified that, despite wire locking being present, the barrel from an aileron flight control turnbuckle was missing, but it could not be determined if this had been missing prior to the accident.