The pilot reported that he was landing his Beechcraft V35B at night and mistook the hangar lights for runway lights.
The airplane struck trees on the final approach to the airport in Wetumpka, Alabama, then the ground before coming to rest, inverted.
The pilot said that, in retrospect, he was on the incorrect radio frequency when he attempted to turn on the pilot-activated runway lights.
An FAA inspector examined the wreckage and reported that the airplane sustained substantial damage. The pilot reported that there were no mechanical problems with the airplane at the time of the accident. The runway lights operated normally after the accident.
Probable cause: The pilot’s use of an incorrect radio frequency when attempting to turn on the runway lights, resulting is an attempt to land the airplane while aligned with airport hangar lights.
NTSB Identification: ERA15CA176
This April 2015 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.
Thank you again, GA news for these reports. Ouch, I wonder how long of a day, turning into night, it was for the Beech pilot. I remember arriving home late after a very long day glad it was my home airport. I was going through the checklist and checked my regular three times that the gear were down along a long final, thinking I was really too tired to be doing this. Got lucky on the landing, it was vfr, calm and beautiful.
This article gives me another item to consider next time I am in this guys situation. That list of failure modes keeps getting longer and longer.
And did those hangar lights suddenly illuminate concurrent with clicking the mike button? Probably not because they were already on steady and had been on for who knows how long. And was the frequency checked with the chart or airport supplement to make sure it was the correct frequency? Probably not. And if equipped as required for night operations, was the landing light turned on that could have illuminated the trees before flying through them? Who knows? In other words Murphy was the pilot and everything that could go wrong did go wrong.
You dont need a landing light unless it’s a commercial operation.but still this could have been avoided.
Sounds like the typical situation where the pilot got locked into an incorrect assumption and did not allow any details that were observable to change it. From a distance the hanger lights might be mistaken but closer in it should have been apparent if the pilot just remained objective and observant. The pilot has to keep accessing the situation all the way for anything that might be wrong especially in a night landing where visual cues are limited and the lack of normal runway lights should have been a big indicator of trouble.