On Aug. 19, 2019, about 0343 eastern daylight time, a Cirrus SR22 was destroyed when it was involved in an accident near Tappahannock, Virginia. The pilot was seriously injured.
The pilot departed Richmond International Airport (KRIC) in Virginia, about 0327. According to radar and communication data from the FAA, at 0335, the airplane was in cruise flight at 3,500 feet mean sea level (msl) when the pilot reported to air traffic control that he was diverting to Tappahannock Essex County Airport (KXSA) due to an electrical smell in the cabin.
The controller acknowledged the transmission and attempted to confirm that it was an electrical smell in the cabin, to which the pilot replied that he did not know what the smell was, but he was going to start a descent for KXSA. At 0336, the pilot reported KXSA in sight and the controller advised the pilot that he could switch radio frequencies to the common traffic advisory frequency for KXSA, which the pilot acknowledged. No further radio communications were received.
According to the pilot, he noticed smoke and attempted to land at KXSA but performed a go-around because the airplane was too high to land. He then turned off the air conditioner and electrical system and attempted to land again, but it was dark and hard to see and breathe due to the smoke.
At 0343, he entered an emergency transponder code and the controller attempted to contact the pilot three times with no success.
At that time, the airplane was at 600 feet msl and the airspeed began to decrease. The pilot deployed the Cirrus Airframe Parachute System (CAPS) and did not recall anything else except waking up in a hospital three days later.
The wreckage was located in swampy terrain at the bottom of a ravine about 600 feet from the approach end of Runway 28 at KXSA. It came to rest in a near-vertical, nose-down position in deep mud.
The empennage had separated from the airplane. There was no damage to the vertical stabilizer, horizontal stabilizer, rudder, or elevator. The deployed CAPS parachute remained attached to the airframe. The entire wing structure remained intact but had separated from the fuselage. The left wing exhibited leading edge impact damage. The right wing was fractured outboard of the outer aileron attach point. The left fuel tank was breached while the right fuel tank remained intact and contained fuel. The wing flaps and ailerons remained attached; the flaps were in the fully-extended position.
The nose section remained buried in mud and water up to the instrument panel. The pilot’s four-point harness was cut by rescue personnel.
Initial examination of the primary flight display (PFD), multifunction display (MFD), integrated flight display, autopilot unit, circuit panel, switch panel, and their associated wires did not reveal any evidence of electrical arcing or burning.
None of the wires in the instrument panel or on the engine exhibited any chafing, sooting, melting or evidence of electrical arcing. The PFD, MFD, Avidyne 540, Avidyne 440, blower motor, avionics cooling fan, XM receiver, enhanced ground proximity warning system, ADS-B receiver, data acquisition unit, heat sync, turn coordinator, directional gyro, and Mode S transponder were all opened for examination. None of their circuit boards exhibited any evidence of arcing, sooting, melting, or electrical damage. Additionally, the cockpit switches and circuit breakers were examined and no anomalies were noted.
Examination of the engine revealed that the three-blade propeller remained attached to the crankshaft. Two propeller blades exhibited chordwise scratches and tip curling, and one of those blades was also twisted. The third propeller blade was bent aft.
The Nos. 1, 2, 3, 5, and 6 intake tubes were separated from the top of their respective cylinder. The top spark plugs were removed and their electrodes were intact, with the exception of the No. 4 spark plug, which exhibited impact damage. The electrodes exhibited corrosion consistent with submersion in the water at the bottom of the ravine. The engine-driven fuel pump was removed and its drive coupling was intact. Due to impact damage, the crankshaft could only be rotated about 90°; however, camshaft and crankshaft continuity was established to the rear accessory section of the engine.
Probable Cause: The pilot’s inability to land on the runway in dark night conditions with reported smoke in the cockpit, which necessitated the deployment of the airplane’s parachute system.
This August 2019 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.
This low time pilot was flying , starting a noon, and then it’s 3 am, with the temp and dew point equal [ a good chance of fog ], when he perceives a problem .
So, after flying for 15 hours, he’s probably tired and not thinking clearly, [ or flying well ].
There was too many risk factors that made this flight unsafe.
The caps barely saved him…he didn’t ‘ walk away’ . He woke up in the hospital with serious injuries.
Maybe it would have been better to stop flying as night approached, and returned the aircraft the next day.
I think the pilot should have shut down the AC, ventilated the cabin the best that he could. All other planes that I have flown require operator to shut down the AC before T.O. and landing approach just incase the T.O. power is needed for a go-around.
I have encountered smoke smells in the cabin from birds nesting and twigs jammed into heater intake to heat muff. Feathers are even worse.
A pre-flight inspection would have prevented that.
There is one paragraph that is disturbing and intimidating…
“According to the pilot, he noticed smoke and attempted to land at KXSA but performed a go-around because the airplane was too high to land. He then turned off the air conditioner and electrical system and attempted to land again, but it was dark and hard to see and breathe due to the smoke.”
This does NOT seem like an inconsequential event such as a carb-heat ‘burn-off’ or flying thru chocking ground-source-smoke… which should have been evident by many witnesses.
What is also a bit disturbing is how badly the airframe was damaged. This implies that CAPS parachute barely had time to deploy/inflate BEFORE impact; which seems similar to ‘late decisions’ to eject from a disabled MIL Acft… and pilot barely survives… just at the margins of survivability-death
I Think I would do All The Same, god bless he is alive.
I switched from a Mooney a little more than 2 years ago to to an RV-3. My “ cruising “ altitude isn’t quite as high. I now have a fixed pitch prop, not metal.
I have been told if I ever smell “ something “ burning I should immediately land since my prop could be chafing loose.
That being said, more than once I have noticed a burning smell and got very observant, looking for a place to land …. and then noticed a small fire on the ground from some one burning leaves.
How many of us smell smoke every fall as the weather starts to cool and the cabin heat begins to be used again after sitting all summer? I swear that TCM and Lycoming build in a auto-rough feature that only shows up as you lose sight of land over water too.
Perfect example of the chute once again saving a life.
Looks to me like the chute was deployed way too low and too late to have done much of anything at all. Did you not read of the near total destruction of the plane?
More like spinning it in rather than gently floating to Earth.
You don’t understand how the chute works. It is not designed to save the plane. It is designed to save lives. All Cirrus chute pulls results in a loss of the aircraft…but the occupants walk away from them. Once you pull the chute, the insurance company owns the plane.
I think this is not an example of a chute saving a life, but more likely a chute destroying an airplane and injuring its pilot. In a plane with no chute, the pilot would have no choice but to land the plane and would have likely done so.