January 2003
October 31, Marshall, Ark. / Cessna Cardinal RG
Subscribers Only At 1110 central time, a Cessna 177RG lost engine power and was damaged in the forced landing that followed. The pilot was not injured. The pilot reported he had taken off about five minutes earlier when the engine started to lose power. The pilot turned the airplane back toward the airport. The engine regained power and the pilot elected to continue the flight. Approximately 25 minutes later, while cruising at 3,000 feet msl, the engine gradually lost power. Unable to restart the engine, the pilot initiated a forced landing to a field, whereupon the airplane struck a ditch, flipped over and came to rest inverted. ...
October 31, Laurel Bloomery, Tenn. / Piper Arrow
Subscribers Only At 0950 eastern time, a Piper PA-28R-200 struck trees and crashed while maneuvering near Laurel Bloomery. The pilot received minor injuries. The pilot said he was practicing maneuvers in the local area when he encountered clear ice at 6,500 feet msl. He descended to 3,500 feet in an attempt to get below the icing conditions but was still picking up ice. He descended in a valley to 2,300 feet, and when he attempted to climb out of the valley struck the wooded terrain. The pilot telephoned rescue personnel via cell phone and was rescued at 1830....
October 28, Marshall, Alaska / Cessna 207
Subscribers Only At about 2000 Alaska time, a Cessna 207 struck terrain during cruise flight about four miles southeast of Marshall. The pilot suffered serious injuries. The airplane was equipped with Capstone equipment, which uses GPS, a terrain database and a multifunction display to portray terrain threats. The pilot said he was experiencing a strong headwind and turbulence and the Capstone display was almost completely red just before impact. The airplane was located about 1,200 feet msl on the north side of a 1,714-foot ridgeline....
October 27, Coral Springs, Fla. / Two Cessna 172s
Subscribers Only At about 1330 eastern time, a Cessna 172M, N9840V, and a Cessna 172N, N6101F, collided while in cruise flight near Coral Springs. N9840V was destroyed, and the private-rated student and flight instructor were killed. N6101F incurred substantial damage, and the private-rated dual student and the commercial-rated flight instructor in N6101F were able to make a successful forced landing without injuries. Both flights originated from Fort Lauderdale Executive Airport about 45 minutes earlier. The two airplanes were in a practice area that included the transmission tower for an AM radio station that some instructors use for ADF training. The surviving student pilot said they were receiving fluctu...
October 22, Cocoa, Fla. / Cessna 310
Subscribers Only At about 1530 eastern time, a Cessna 310 crashed shortly after takeoff from Merritt Island Airport. The pilot was killed. Witnesses at the airport said the pilot started the No. 2 engine first and that it was “missing, sputtering, and back firing.” The pilot then started the No. 1 engine, and performed engine “runups” with either one or both engines making the same loud “missing, sputtering and backfiring” noises. Despite the noises, the pilot proceeded to take off on runway 11, with one or both engines making unusual noises. One witness said he noticed the right propeller stop turning and saw the airplane banking toward the dead engine. The airplane crashed into a swamp about a half mile so...
October 21, Kincaid, Ill. / Cessna 150
Subscribers Only At 1634 central time, a Cessna 150M crashed while attempting what a witness described as an aerobatic flight maneuver. The pilot suffered serious injuries. The flight departed from a field near Kincaid at an unconfirmed time. The 150 was not certified in the acrobatic category....
October 18, Hartwood, Va. / Cessna 182
Subscribers Only At about 1512 eastern time, a Cessna 182B lost engine power in cruise flight near Hartwood and was damaged in the ensuing forced landing. The pilot sustained minor injuries. The pilot said he departed Hartwood Airport with “2 inches” of fuel in each tank. The pilot flew over the local area for approximately one hour, and then the engine lost power. Examination of the wreckage revealed there was no fuel in either tank....
October 16, Trenton, N.J. / Pilatus PC-12
Subscribers Only At about 1425 eastern time, a Pilatus PC-12/45 suffered an engine failure and was damaged in the ensuing forced landing. One passenger suffered minor injuries and the other three occupants were not injured. The pilots said the flight departed runway 06, the airplane was cleaned up and then it entered the clouds. They detected a smell they could not identify and there were multiple bangs from the front of the airplane. Flame and sparks were observed coming from the left side engine exhaust. The pilot turned toward the airport, shut down the engine and feathered the prop. The airplane landed long and fast with a 20-knot tailwind and wet pavement. The airplane departed the end of the runway, co...
October 15, Mount Sterling, Ky. / Cessna 172
Subscribers Only At 1720 eastern time, a Cessna 172N struck a tower while flying the GPS Rwy 21 approach to Mount Sterling-Montgomery County Airport, killing the pilot and passenger. During the approach, which involved a shortcut requested by the pilot and approved by the controller, the pilot was advised to maintain 3,000 feet until established on the approach. The controller told the pilot to switch to the Unicom frequency twice, but the pilot said he wanted to stay with the controller in case of a missed approach. The airplane tracked parallel to but about a mile west of the approach course and the altitude fluctuated between 2,300 feet and 2,500 feet for much of that segment of the approach. The controll...
October 15, Coeur d’Alene, Idaho / Lancair IV
Subscribers Only At approximately 0905 Pacific time, a Lancair IV crashed during an aborted landing at a private airstrip four miles east-southeast of Coeur d’Alene. The pilot and one passenger were killed and another passenger was seriously injured. The survivor was a pilot who had flown into and out of the landing site on previous occasions, but the pilot had never flown into the 40-foot-wide, 2,206-foot-long airstrip before. The owner of the airstrip said the aircraft entered a left traffic pattern and, on short final, appeared to be high and with a nose-high attitude. The aircraft touched down with the left main wheel on the runway about three feet left of the runway’s right edge and the right gear touch...
October 15, Point Pleasant, W.Va. / Cirrus SR-20
Subscribers Only At about 1700 eastern time, a Cirrus SR-20 was damaged on landing at Mason County Airport. The student pilot and passenger received minor injuries. The pilot said he spotted four deer on the runway while he was on final approach. He adjusted his approach to land beyond them and the airplane touched down 700 to 1,000 feet past the deer. At that point, the pilot spotted three more deer to his right front about 50 to 75 feet away, and crossing the runway. The pilot added power and pitched the nose of the airplane up but the airplane struck two deer, departed the side of the runway and went into a line of trees....
October 14, Loa, Utah / Mooney M20B
Subscribers Only At approximately 0800 mountain time, a Mooney M20B was damaged during a forced landing on rocks near Loa. The pilot and passenger were not injured. The pilot said the engine quit about 15 minutes after departure, shortly after he slid his seat back to retrieve something from the back seat. During the forced landing, rocks ripped open the wing and damaged the nose gear. Examination of the airplane revealed the fuel selector valve, which is located under the pilot’s seat, was between the “right” and “off” positions....
October 12, South Vienna, Ohio / Cessna Cardinal RG
Subscribers Only At 2030 eastern time, a Cessna 177RG lost engine power and made a forced landing in South Vienna. The pilot and passenger were seriously injured. The pilot said he was about seven miles from his destination of Madison County Airport at 2,500 feet when he noticed a burning smell and the engine lost power. He determined he could not make the airport and aimed at a dark patch on the ground. The airplane then impacted a soybean field in a nose-down attitude. Examination of the engine revealed the dual magneto had backed off its mounting bracket on the engine and was lying in the engine cowling. The attaching hardware for the magneto was not located....
October 12, Allentown, Pa. / Beech Baron
Subscribers Only At 0950 eastern time, a Beech 58 was damaged while landing at Lehigh Valley International Airport. The pilot was not injured. The pilot reported landing without incident but then raising the landing gear switch instead of the flaps during the rollout. The landing gear retracted and the airplane slid to a stop on the runway, suffering damage to the left wing spar during the sequence....
October 12, Rexburg, Idaho / Mooney M20K
Subscribers Only At approximately 1300 mountain time, a Mooney M20K struck a fence during a runway overrun after landing at Madison County Airport. The pilot and three passengers were not injured. The pilot said he landed long and fast and was unable to get the aircraft stopped by the time it reached the end of the 4,200-foot runway. As the airplane approached a fence past the departure end of the runway, the pilot attempted to make it the airplane hop over the fence. The aircraft’s landing gear caught on the fence. The pilot reported no pre-accident mechanical anomalies....
October 12, North Las Vegas, Nev. / Cessna 310
Subscribers Only At about 2320 Pacific time, a Cessna 310L landed gear up on runway 30L at North Las Vegas Airport. None of the five aboard was injured. The pilot told investigators he was distracted from his pre-landing checklist by looking for traffic and forgot to extend the landing gear. He did not notice the green gear-down indicators were not illuminated and the gear warning horn did not activate until about a second before the propellers struck the runway. The control tower was closed, and air traffic controllers at another airport were notified that the airplane was disabled on the runway. No flight service station was notified and no notam was issued. At about 0545 the next morning a departing airpl...
October 09, Jellico, Tenn. / Beech Bonanza
Subscribers Only At about 1057 eastern time, a Beech K-35 broke up in flight and crashed on Pine Mountain near Jellico. The pilot was killed. The airplane was en route at 9,000 feet when Indianapolis Center handed the flight off to Atlanta Center. The pilot did not respond. Radar data showed the southbound flight made a brief descending right turn before climbing back to 9,000 feet. The airplane was then heading north-northeast and disappeared from radar while at a Mode C indicated altitude of 7,700 feet....
October 07, Somerset, Pa. / Taylorcraft 15A
Subscribers Only At 1440 eastern time, a Taylorcraft 15A struck power lines shortly after taking off from Somerset County Airport. The flight instructor and airplane owner were not injured. The flight instructor said he and the pilot had traveled to Maryland to inspect and pick up the newly purchased airplane and fly it back to Michigan. The buyer was a commercial pilot but was not current in the airplane and had asked the flight instructor to accompany him and provide flight instruction while en route to Michigan. The day before the accident, the flight instructor flew the airplane alone for about 30 minutes and talked to the seller about the airplane’s slow climb rate, which was about 300-400 feet per minu...
October 06, Port Sulphur, La. / Mooney M20K
Subscribers Only At 0830 central time, a Mooney M20K struck trees during a go-around at Birdwin Airport. The pilot and three passengers were not injured. The pilot said he overflew the 2,200-foot turf runway 03 prior to landing and noticed no hazards or standing water. He made the second approach and landed, but the airplane was not slowing down. With heavy braking the airplane started to skid. The pilot abandoned the landing and applied full power. During initial climb the left wing struck a bush. The airplane pivoted to the left and struck an embankment....
October 03, Lewisville, Texas / Cirrus SR-22
Subscribers Only At approximately 1440 central time, a Cirrus SR-22 crashed following an in-flight separation of the left aileron during cruise flight near Lewisville. The pilot activated the airplane’s parachute and was not injured. The pilot said the airplane had been in for completion of Cirrus service bulletin 22-95-05, which called for replacement of the parachute activation cable, and SB A22-27-03, which called for replacement of the trim cartridge self-locking nut. The pilot conducted a preflight inspection and took off. A few minutes after takeoff, the pilot noticed the airplane was pulling to the left and discovered the left aileron was separated at one hinge attach point. He declared an emergency,...
October 02, West Carrollton, Ohio / Beagle B.206
Subscribers Only At about 1540 eastern time, a Beagle B.206 Basset crashed in West Carrollton while on a ferry flight to Easton, Md. The pilot was killed. The airplane had been parked at Moraine Airpark for about six months. The pilot obtained a ferry flight permit to move the airplane, which was out of annual. A mechanic who helped prepare the airplane for flight reported draining about 2.5 gallons of water from the airplane’s center sump drain. It was then fueled with 224.5 gallons of avgas and the pilot prepared for departure. A witness said the engines sounded like they were running smoothly but not developing full power. When the airplane was about three-fourths of the way down the 3,500-foot runway, it...
October 01, Laramie, Wyo. / Cessna 210
Subscribers Only At 1627 mountain time, a Cessna T210M struck terrain while maneuvering 16 miles northeast of Laramie, killing the pilot. Instrument meteorological conditions existed at the accident site and the airplane had been on an IFR flight plan. The pilot was at FL170 when he requested a descent to 13,000 feet to “see if we can work our way through these clouds.” Ten minutes later he reported he was “presently about 39 miles to the northwest of Laramie. Got a pretty big opening. I’m gonna cancel out on this IFR. I think I can make a big circle and get under this scattered layer...” Radar contact was lost seven minutes later after the airplane had made three 360-degree turns and was at 10,500 feet. The...
Beach Battle
Subscribers Only I was assigned to ferry an OH-58A (a.k.a. Bell JetRanger) from Fort Bragg, N.C., to Corpus Christi, Texas, for overhaul. I was a newly minted Army captain, two years out of flight school, with about 500 hours of helicopter time. I was on the second day of the ferry flight, with the VFR helicopter loaded down with sectionals and all of the helicopter’s logs and records. The weather was good VFR, and I was flying along the Texas coast from Galveston to Corpus Christi, listening to local radio on the ADF. I was flying low enough that it would have been illegal over a congested area, but high enough that my whirling wings weren’t kicking up sand as I blew down the coast at all of 90 knots.
SB can be BS
Your article “Pin Placement” [Accident Probe, November] questions the pilot/owner’s non-compliance with a Beech service bulletin. One of my former jobs was as an engineer at a major airline. One of my tasks was to review the steady stream of service bulletins that came in from the aircraft manufacturer and evaluate whether to comply fully, partially, or not at all with a particular bulletin. Most of these bulletins had the word “Mandatory” across the top in red letters. My office was run by a stickler for safety who would stand up to any airline management for something that had a true safety impact. We complied with relatively few of the mandatory service bulletins that came in. Th...
Lousy Seals
Subscribers Only The following information is derived from the FAA’s Service Difficulty Reports and Aviation Maintenance Alerts. ---------- The FAA reports it has information that some of the Airborne vacuum pumps and possibly pump drive coupling kits provided by Parker Hannifin and produced under a parts manufacture approval may have incorporated a cork gasket that is not compatible with some pump installations on certain engine installations. Cessna has issued a specific service newsletter that applies to the installation of the incorrect vacuum pump cork gasket. However, the suspect cork gasket may have been installed on other makes and models of aircraft when either the vacuum pump and/or the pump...
NTSB Preliminary Reports
Subscribers Only The following briefs were selected from the 122 preliminary reports filed with the NTSB in October 2002. Statements in quotes were taken directly from the NTSB documents. The information is subject to change as the investigations are completed. Click here to view "Accident Totals, October." ---------- October 01, Laramie, Wyo. Cessna 210 At 1627 mountain time, a Cessna T210M struck terrain while maneuvering 16 miles northeast of Laramie, killing the pilot. Instrument meteorological conditions existed at the accident site and the airplane had been on an IFR flight plan. The pilot was at FL170 when he requested a descent to...
Fighting Attitude
Subscribers Only Partial panel after vacuum failure overwhelms pilot’s desperate attempt to get down from IFR on top.
Slanted View
Subscribers Only Visibility measurements at the airport don’t mean you can see the field from that far away. The wicked world of slant-range vis
Alternate Realities
Subscribers Only Picking a runner-up spot for a landing should be an exercise for all flights, not just those poor-weather instrument flights
Cabin-Class Singles
Subscribers Only In this group of three airplanes, Beech’s 36 series seems to shine, with an admirably low overall accident rate
Flying on the Rocks
Subscribers Only The potential for ice doesn’t have to ground you for the winter if you understand the weather and consider your options
So Near, Yet so Far
High ceilings early in the day had, by mid-afternoon, given way to a 3,500-foot overcast and declining visibility. Below the clouds it was still decent VFR, and would remain so for several hours when some storms in advance of a cold front would hit the Florida peninsula. But a haze had settled that cut visibility to about seven miles. I was flying the Citabria from a meeting in Venice, Fla., back home to Orlando at 2,000 feet and I had tuned in the Lakeland Tower frequency in advance of transitioning that airspace. Things were pretty quiet until an uncertain voice came on the radio. “Uh, Lakeland. This is Bonanza 12Z calling for Lakeland. Lakeland Tower.” “Bonanza 12Z, Lakeland Towe...
Destination Unknown
Subscribers Only Your preflight planning should enable you to answer the question: Is the destination airport a friend or foe?