Law enforcement officers reported that the pilot of the Piper PA-28-140 told them he intended to intentionally crash his plane after dropping a pillow onto his wife’s house. The pilot demanded that his wife speak to him before he initiated his takeoff.
Law enforcement officers were in intermittent contact through phone calls and text messaging throughout the four-hour flight. The pilot told the law enforcement officials that he was flying while intoxicated and that he was not confident in his ability to land due to his level of intoxication. At one point, he agreed to land at an airport near Camdenton, Missouri.
During the descent he aimed the airplane towards law enforcement officers and flew over them at a low altitude while yelling “wee woo, wee woo” out of the side vent window before initiating a climb. He continued to refuse to land until he was able to speak with his wife.
He later crashed northwest of the airport. The airplane hit trees and came to rest on its nose, which resulted in substantial damage to both wings, fuselage, horizontal stabilator, and the lower engine compartment. The pilot, who was seriously injured, fled the accident site before surrendering himself to local law enforcement officers.
Law enforcement officers observed an empty six pack container of alcohol and one unopened bottle of alcohol on the ground under the airplane. Inside the airplane, on the floor near the rudder pedals, there were two empty bottles of alcohol.
Upon inspection of the wing fuel tanks, the left wing tank was empty and had no observable fuel in it. The right wing tank had an occasional drip from where it was ruptured. There was no observable fuel blight on nearby vegetation and no fuel dye stains present on any of the aircraft surfaces.
The pilot reported that he was attempting to land when he lost complete engine power due to carburetor icing and hit trees short of the runway. He stated that he departed with full fuel, and that it would have given him seven or eight hours of flight time. He did not fill out an NTSB Form 6120.1 Pilot/Operator Aircraft Accident/Incident Report.
When comparing the reported weather around the time of the accident to FAA special Airworthiness Information Bulletin, CE-09-35 Carburetor Icing Prevention, the flight environment was within the range for icing conditions for pressure-type carburetors.
Probable Cause: The pilot’s poor flight planning, which resulted in a loss of engine power due to fuel exhaustion.
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This November 2024 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.
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