The accident happened when a Highlander and a Taylorcraft were attempting to land at an airpark in Bryan, Ohio.
The passenger onboard the Highlander reported that it was approaching the runway to the east when the pilot noticed the Taylorcraft landing in the opposite direction on the same runway. The Highlander pilot added full power and made a hard left turn to avoid the Taylorcraft, but lost control of the Highlander and it crashed, killing the pilot and seriously injuring the passenger.
Investigators determined it is likely that because of the slow airspeed, the airplane entered an aerodynamic stall.
According to the pilot of the other airplane, during the landing flare, he noticed the Highlander landing in the opposite direction, so he aborted the landing and climbed straight ahead.
The passenger aboard the Highlander said the pilot was using the radio to make position reports during the approach. The pilot of the Taylorcraft stated that he was monitoring frequency 122.8 MHz.
Post-accident examination of the Highlander revealed that the radio was set to 122.5 MHz as the active position and 122.8 MHz in the standby position. Therefore, the pilot of the Taylorcraft would not have heard his radio communications.
At the time of the accident, the airpark did not have a common traffic advisory frequency for pilots to communicate on while operating at the air park. As a result of the investigation, the airpark management adopted 122.8 as the CTAF for pilots to communicate on while operating at the field.
The NTSB determined the probable cause as the pilot’s failure to maintain sufficient airspeed during a go-around, which resulted in an aerodynamic stall and subsequent impact with terrain.
NTSB Identification: CEN13LA244
This April 2013 accident report is provided by the National Transportation Safety Board. Published as an educational tool, it is intended to help pilots learn from the misfortunes of others.
When two pilots realize they are flying toward each other and both are at normal flying speed with safe altitude and distance, the collision avoidance procedure of both pilots turning right is easy. But when the airplane is barely flying and the pilot is forced to make a split second decision, then the situation has transitioned into an emergency. And in emergencies, the pilot is expected to respond to the extent needed to meet the emergency even if it deviates from regulations or established procedures. Of course, hopefully good judgement is used, but when the pilot only has a split second to react, we hope for the best outcome. I.e. what I’m saying is that in the judgement of the Highlander pilot and under the circumstances at that split second, turning left may have appeared as the only or best option.
I don’t know anything first hand about that airport, but in looking for a minute at private airports in general on the sectional, I didn’t see any with a published CTAF. In that case, the general fallback per the AIM is to use the multicom frequency 122.9. However, the accident report indicates the Taylorcraft pilot was monitoring 122.8, and the Highlander pilot had 122.8 in the standby frequency. Assuming these pilots had permission from the owner to land at this private airport, it appears there may have been an established CTAF between the owner and pilots who were given permission to use the airport.
One thing we can take away from this tragic incident is to remember that at airports (even towered ones), we need to always scan for other aircraft that may not be communicating. At the non-tower ones, radios are not even required. At any airport, an airplane may be approaching under some emergency and not be able to communicate. It is an unfortunate reminder that we need to practice the best see-and-avoid procedures that we can at all times and not ever assume that all arriving aircraft are able to communicate.
So many mistakes made here. Wrong frequency by one, the other just monitoring. Also, I thought the rule for opposing aircraft was to always turn right. If each airplane had made just a moderate right turn it seems like the whole incident could have been avoided. I suppose once the accident aircraft made the hard left turn, the Taylorcraft pilot was correct in just flying straight ahead. It sounds as though the accident pilot panicked. I’d be interested to know what someone more experienced than me thinks.
Also, how can ANY airport/airpark ANYWHERE not have a CTAF?!?