The pilot had recently purchased the American Champion Aircraft 8KCAB from the factory and was returning to his home airport when the accident occurred.
The weather conditions initially forecast in the vicinity of the destination airport before departure were consistent with visual meteorological conditions, however, by the time the pilot was within 50 miles of the destination airport, the forecast and actual weather conditions had deteriorated to instrument meteorological conditions (IMC).
Shortly before the accident, a witness observed the airplane as it flew low above the ground in visibilities of about 150 yards in dense fog.
The airplane subsequently hit the tops of trees located near the peak of rising terrain before hitting the ground near Holland, N.J. The orientation and length of the wreckage path were consistent with a controlled flight into terrain impact sequence. The pilot died in the crash.
The airplane was not equipped for IMC, nor did the pilot hold an instrument rating.
A handheld tablet computer, along with a device capable of receiving in-flight weather updates, was recovered from the wreckage. It could not be determined if the pilot had used the device to observe the changing weather conditions during the flight.
However, he also could have used outside visual references and could have tuned the onboard communications radio to weather reporting stations located along the route of flight and noted that weather conditions ahead had deteriorated to IMC.
Upon encountering IMC, he could have diverted the flight to allow weather conditions to improve rather than continuing to the planned destination.
The NTSB determined the probable cause as the pilot’s continued visual flight rules flight into instrument meteorological conditions, resulting in controlled flight into trees and terrain.
NTSB Identification: ERA14FA093
This January 2014 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.
If you have extensive IFR experience, you have an immediate understanding of the headline :Flight into IMC kills new airplane owner.” No guessing required!
That’s because you know something about cockpit resource management, risk assessment, understand the equipment requirements, and polished and practiced your IFR piloting skills in a simulator or IMC.
As I read the complete story above, everything pointed in the direction of removing the pilot (and his aircraft) from the sky, which he accomplished on his own.
Thanks for posting these accident reports. I agree with your headline. To please some folks who posted here, maybe you should change the headline of the article to ” Flight into IMC two years ago causes Blunt Force Trauma to kill pilot when the aircraft hit the ground”..
Headline again is wrong…..the flight into IMC did not kill the pilot…..blunt force trauma killed the pilot.
Poor decision making lead to the blunt force thatkilled the pilot.
You are not helping aviators by using mis leading headlines.
Everything the FAA tests on now is about decision making….reinforce that
please
I disagree. The headline isn’t supposed to BE the article. It’s supposed to give the gist of the article in as few words possible to help the reader make the decision to read the article or not. In this case, flight into IMC DID result in the death of the pilot. So if someone were to read the headline only, the warning of the dangers of flying into IMC would continue to be reinforced.
To your point about decision-making, the current headline DOES reinforce the importance of decision-making. It says “if you decide to fly into IMC you could die”. So in that respect, it seems like an excellent headline to me. I am very curious as to what you think the headline should have been, keeping in mind the need to keep it as short as possible.
Continued Flight into IMC kills new airplane owner
Flight into IMC not only has not killed me, it got my a free plane wash on more than one occasion. Oh, yeah, I’m instrument rated and current. So flying into IMC is not the issue, it really is CONTINUED flight — that head line tells everyone that someone decided to, roll the dice, tempt Ma nature, etc.
There’s a pretty good thread on the Red Board (AOPA Forum) about the causes of GA accidents and why it’s so darn difficult to squeeze the accident rate closer to “zero”. If it’s the pilot’s poor decision making (the root cause of about 80% of accidents) maybe the best explanation is Darwin isn’t yet dead (enough). If it’s maintenance related (about 20%) perhaps it’s “fate”. Even when the wrench wasn’t used well the emergency can often be handled without accident providing the pilot is proficient and spring loaded. An amazing number of accidents occur because the pilot launched with known, serious, deficiencies. Stick and rudder skills are an issue with some accidents, but the root cause is really poor decisions. Decisions to launch, decisions to continue, decisions to buzz, decisions to land with really adverse conditions, etc.
It’s too bad this pilot was so fixated on getting “home” that, to repeat a phrase used during and after some funerals, “he went home to be with the Lord”… Not quite what was his intent when he launched, nor when he stuck to the “PaLAAANNN” when it became apparent the “PaLAAANNN” wasn’t gonna work.
Sometimes I wonder if these flights into IMC accidents are caused by thinking the way a pilot told me a couple of weeks ago:
“If I lose all my instruments, I truly believe that I can fly the plane anyway by just using airspeed and altimeter.” He actually argued with me when I told him there was no way. I really hope he never gets a chance to need to try doing it and if he does, that no one is with him.
Pilots should learn to fly via instruments. Period.
Mistakes, sometime it’s the final Frontier, “if only” comes up a lot in accidents like this.
RIP Mr. Aviator
get-there-itis may someday bite us…a quote from an FAA advisory circular from the ’70’s…and still the accidents like this happen…I’ve slept in all kinds of small airplanes at all kinds of small airports when the weather became unfavorable for enjoyable VFR flight…
Amen
You are posting a 2 year old accident synopsis without any note about it?