aviation accidents

The pilot reported he had not flown the Mooney M20J for years, but once or twice a year, he would taxi the plane up and down his private airstrip near Lamar, Colo. On this occasion, he taxied the airplane on the airstrip, and for some unknown reason, he decided to pull back on the yoke […]

During a cross-country flight in the Diamond DA-40, the pilot decided to divert to the airport in Coolidge, Ariz., due to personal needs. He reported flying the normal pattern and making a stabilized approach. Upon touchdown the plane veered to the left and he corrected with right rudder. The plane then started to rotate to […]

The commercial pilot was concluding a personal flight with two passengers on board the Cessna 421. He reported that, during the landing roll and after a normal touchdown on the concrete runway in Charleston, S.C., the right main landing gear collapsed. The plane then veered right and hit two runway lights, which resulted in substantial […]

The pilot reported that, about 15 minutes into the flight and six miles from his arrival airport, the Titan 51 Mustang lost all engine and electrical power. He established the best glide speed for the plane, turned on the auxiliary fuel pump switch, and tried to extend the landing gear. When he realized that the […]

The owner of the recently-purchased, 65-hp Kitfox II was undergoing tailwheel endorsement training. He and the flight instructor had previously flown the plane about nine hours, for about two hours each time, with no problems noted. They had begun the flight about an hour earlier; the wind was from the west, and they were landing […]

According to the pilot, when he attempted to start the Cessna 172B at the airport in Mt. Olive, N.C., “the battery was low.” He exited the airplane, instructed the passenger to remain in the plane and how to turn the magnetos on and off, and he utilized the tail tie-down hook and secured the tail […]

About three months before the accident, the pilot received about nine hours of flight instruction, including completion of an instrument proficiency check, in the Socata TBM 700. The accident flight was a cross-country flight operated under instrument flight rules (IFR). Radar track data depicted the flight proceeding on a west-southwest course at 15,800 feet mean […]

During the night cross-country flight, the Piper PA-28-181 had been flying for four hours, 21 minutes and was about six miles from the destination airport when the pilot reported a fuel emergency to air traffic control. He stated that he was going to attempt to land on a highway, however, the plane hit 160-foot power […]

On the morning of the accident, the de Havilland DHC-1 pilot contacted a flight service station for a weather briefing for a visual flight rules (VFR) flight from Wisconsin to Georgia. The briefer told the pilot that VFR flight was not recommended from southern Kentucky through Tennessee and into north Georgia. He also stated that […]