According to a representative from the airplane rental facility, the non-instrument-rated pilot had departed on a cross-country flight in the Cessna 172M.
He had received multiple weather reports from Lockheed Martin Flight Services, during which the weather briefer indicated that mountain obscuration and low ceilings existed along the flight route.
Flightpath data provided by the FAA indicated that, shortly after departure, the airplane flew to the northwest, directly into the area that was showing adverse weather conditions.
Sometime later, radar data showed that the plane began a descending right turn from about 2,525′ mean sea level. The track ended less than one minute later over open water about seven miles northwest of the departure airport in Hawaii.
An alert notice was issued after an FAA air traffic control facility lost radar contact with the airplane.
A search and rescue effort was initiated, however, the airplane and its three occupants were not found.
Probable cause: Undetermined because the airplane was not located.
NTSB Identification: WPR17FAMS2
This December 2016 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.
You are all correct in your thoughts! However, I can hear the uproar and see the class action suits. The God of aviation gave us free will to make our own decisions, however misguided. Your refusal to rent an aircraft to me infringes upon that right. Will you refuse to rent an apartment to me because I look like a slob and might destroy it? No car rental as I don’t look too bright and might blow the engine. Where does the discrimination stop? Who plays God and decides my worthiness? I don’t know.
Such a basic issue and yet it claims lives every year
My suggestion is require a minimum instrument instruction threshold to issue a full unrestricted private pilot’s license.
This would include a “ judgement “ section on weather hazards.
Such a waste of good aluminum!
Bad decision making, It always ends up being, ” Bad decision making” . Why can’t someone come up with a book , ” how Not to make bad decision’s ” It would certainly save a multitude of lives, on a daily bases….
I believe more emphasis needs to be placed on Situational Awareness and Risk Mitigation during our initial training and flight reviews.
Please alert me to the availability of the aforementioned book, I am anxious to purchase for my 20 year old son!
Spatial Disorientation followed by a Graveyard Spiral due to lack of sufficient training for flight in Instrument Conditions. That is probable cause.
Why the pilot would be stupid enough to fly into the clouds is the only question here as he only had logged 4 hours of instrument training as part of his recently issued Private Pilot License (but with a 1st class medical!). It is tragic that he took two persons with him on this fatal flight, one of whom was his girlfriend. Those two passengers likely had no knowledge as to how poor the pilots judgement was and how much danger they were in until it was too late. The airplane rental company even had an offer of a friend he could stay with rather then attempt a return at night as it was past 1800 local time. The weather at the departure point was scattered at 900 ft, broken at 1,600 and ceiling at 5.500 ft with 6 miles visibility in light rain in addition to the AIRMET for mountain obstruction. The current air temp was 19 deg C with dewpoint at 18 deg C so that was not a good situation either. Add all that up and is this result at all unexpected?
I think the full narrative from the NTSB should have been provided here even if a bit long as it paints a much more complete picture of a pilot launching into conditions that he was just not prepared to handle.
What responsibility is there with the rental facility?
Nothing mentioned about their liability in the circumstances reported. Do they not have a fiducary responsiblility to their insurers. To the owners of the aircraft and to the passengers on board this aircraft. Would it not be prudent for them to show professionalism due to weather on route knowing it was beyond pilots capability.
The representative of the rental facility was also the pilots flight instructor for his two months old Private Pilot License. She had regular contact with the pilot both prior to the flight and while he was on the ground at the initial destination airport. The most she apparently did was suggest he stay there with a friend of hers rather that make the flight back in the adverse conditions that were present. We do not have any way to know the actual content of those conversations, just a few text messages sent from the pilot prior to his return flight that were only indicating that he had arrived at what was the airport he would be departing from on the tragic last flight.
Those are the facts as provided by the NTSB Full Narrative but they do not provide a usable picture of what the pilot and his former instructor were actually saying. Bob raises a good point on just what was the responsibility of the rental facility to monitor the use of their aircraft and protect it from damage or destruction. Do we not always have to take a check ride with an instructor before we are allowed to rent a new aircraft type from a rental facility. We have to prove that we are capable of operating during normal, and usually abnormal, conditions. Given that should they not be giving their approval for each subsequent rental? Is the pilot coherent and in reasonable health to safely operate the airplane. Is the pilots planned flight reasonably safe and within their piloting abilities.
Lets look at this process now that a rental agency should seriously follow in real world scenarios. If a non instrumented pilot wants to rent an airplane when the weather is solid IFR would they not refuse them. When I was still a reasonably experienced pilot but still at just a few hundred hours (Commercial Instrument) I moved from nice flat low altitude Florida, to California with its somewhat more vertical terrain and challenging airspace restrictions. I had planned to take a rental aircraft from a coastal area over the mountains to a desert area. The weather included a report of high winds but to me that just meant a bit more bumpier ride than normal. While at the rental counter one of their instructors asked me where I was headed to and when I said the desert he instantly made a disappointing facial gesture. He expanded on that with a statement that I would encounter possible severe air currents over the mountains and they would not allow that use of the aircraft. I accepted that bit of aeronautical wisdom and revised my plans to go to a coastal destination for my $100 dollar hamburger. So there was a case of a rental agency exercising their obligation to ensure that their aircraft are operated safely and not become a big loss to their insurer. They understood that their area provided significant challenges to safe operation and acted on it. In the accident that we are talking about they fell far short of that. We had a freshly minted pilot going on a short cross country over open water when it was late in the day and bad weather prevailed. That sounds like a recipe for disaster but the CFI who dispatched the flight and had voice contact with the pilot prior to the return flight did not put her foot down at any time and said NO. Maybe she did not want to lose a customer by keeping him away overnight, they do not say, but we know what the consequences of the decision were, a wrecked aircraft and three dead people.
The FBO is not a Bar. This is not like serving alcohol to someone who is drunk.
So don’t make the FBO have to do the following before you can get the keys to an airplane:
* Review your flight plan and have you fully explain the weather briefing.
* Give you a check ride to make sure you know how to execute a 180 standard rate turn in VMC.
* Examine your log book for pax currency DAY, Night, and Instrument currency
Then require all the above by phone before you can launch from the airport you flew to (assuming you did a cross-country where you were n hours away from the home airport).
[Oh, and you will have to pay for all of that before you get the keys for each rental]
Think flying is expensive now? Now the FBO has to get a new insurance policy for crystal ball operations — because they knew or should have known that a T-Storm was going to pop-up….. If you don’t understand this, go talk to a property-casualty attorney — Seriously your idea opens up a whole new can of worms.
Your thinking only results in more costs for flying. Why I own a plane with 3 partners. I don’t have to justify myself to them. I just have to make sure I am current for Pax (day/night) and Instrument, and get my BFRs done (which, I just did).
It already is expensive and killing yourself and two of your passengers is more expensive still. Anybody with an ounce of resposibility would have told a newly minted pilot with little or no experience to not go into IMC.
A completely avoidable accident!
Yet another non-instrumented rated flying into possible IMC. Tragic.