Bachem carried out an investigation into the loss of Sieber and the BP-20/M23 (they rarely used the RLM designation Ba 349 or 8-349, except in correspondence with the ministry).



The salient points were:



1. The acceleration off the tower forced him back in his seat and since he was holding the control column he pulled it back, causing the aircraft to steadily curve onto its back. The auto pilot was not ready for this flight and anyway did not override pilot input.



2. As the aircraft inverted Sieber pressed against the canopy, his harness not being tight enough to prevent this, which caused the latch to fail and the canopy to be lost.



3. When the canopy was lost, Sieber's headrest went with it. This caused his head to snap back through about 25 cm, striking the wooden bulkhead at the rear of the cockpit. This may have concussed him or even broken his neck.



4. It was possible that Sieber himself may still have been able to shut down the main engine after 15 seconds, though this may have been caused by bubbles in the fuel, given the odd angle of ascent.



5.The aircraft was uncontrollable and Sieber was likely to have been dead or incapacitated, incapable of saving himself.



Some of those who saw the crash site believed that Sieber had attempted to escape, but Erich Bachem did not. He would write.



"We found the machine completely destroyed. The pilot had made no attempt to escape. Of our comrade we found only the left hand with a piece of forearm and a left leg that was ripped off below the knee."



It was these remains that led some others to conjecture that Sieber may have been partially out of the cockpit at the point of impact.



Later a portion of his skull was retrieved from the 5m deep crater that ended the first and only manned flight of the Ba 349.



Cheers



Steve