Wikipedia:1980 Mojave Bombardier Challenger 600 crash

On April 3, 1980, a Canadair CL-600-1A11 Challenger 600 undergoing a test flight for Canadair entered a deep stall and crashed. The pilots bailed out before impact but one was killed.

Aircraft
The aircraft involved was a Canadair Limited CL-600 with serial number 1001 and was registered as C-GCGR-X. It first flew in November 1978 and was powered by two Avco Lycoming ALF-502L turbofan engines.

The captain was 52-year-old Eric Norman Ronaasen, who had logged 7,782 flight hours, including 468 hours on the Canadair CL-600. The first officer was 39-year-old David Gollings, and the flight engineer 33-year-old Bill Scott.

Accident
The aircraft departed from Mojave Air and Space Port in California on a test flight that would involve several stall tests as well as an attempt to troubleshoot an abnormal sound that had occurred during previous tests.

During one the tests, the angle of attack increased beyond the maximum 34 degrees and the aircraft entered a real stall. The flight crew deployed the anti-spin recovery parachute in an attempt to regain control. The chute deployed, but failed to jettison. The crew, wearing parachutes of their own, decided to bail out of the aircraft; captain Ronaasen evacuated via the main cabin door while first officer Gollings and flight engineer Scott evacuated through the aircraft's tail. Ronaasen's parachute failed to open and he fell to his death. At 09:10 the aircraft (now unoccupied) crashed near the town of Cantil and was destroyed. First officer Gollings sustained a broken ankle while flight engineer Scott was uninjured.

Investigation
Investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board found the abnormal sound was that of the accident aircraft's left engine. It had failed 11 times before the accident flight. The angle of attack display malfunction had been caused by faulty seals.