aviation accidents

The instrument-rated pilot was on a 234-nm instrument flight rules (IFR) cross-country flight over mountainous terrain in the Beech B36TC. During the flight, he notified a controller at the Air Route Traffic Control Center (ARTCC) that the plane was picking up too much ice and requested to divert to an airport located about 96 miles […]

The Cessna 172 had just returned from a training flight near New Orleans and the engine was still warm. The pilot said she had difficulty starting the engine and opened the throttle “just a bit.” She said she set the parking brake and her feet were on the brakes. When the engine started, it went […]

The non-instrument-rated private pilot obtained a computerized weather briefing about nine hours before he departed on a night cross-country flight in a Piper PA28-181. At that time, neither ice nor low visibility conditions were forecast along his intended flight route. He did not obtain any additional weather information before takeoff or while en route. Weather […]

The Cessna 150L pilot reported that, before departure, she checked the fuel gauges and estimated that the fuel tanks were just under 1/2 full and contained no less than 10 gallons of fuel. (The total fuel capacity was 26 gallons, of which 3.5 gallons were unusable.) She was unable to measure the fuel because she […]

The pilot was landing a wheel/ski-equipped Cessna 185 on a frozen, wind-blown, ice and snow-covered lake near Nenana, Alaska. He had established a landing area earlier in the day, by laying down ski tracks with a friend’s ski-equipped airplane. Upon touchdown, the plane did not slow as expected, and it began to veer off the […]

According to the pilot’s wife, he departed on a cross-country flight in a Focke-Wulf FWP 149D to attend a friend’s funeral. He told her he intended to stop to buy fuel at an airport 20 miles from the departure airport. Although the pilot indicated to her the night before the accident that he was concerned […]

The Dragonfly gyroplane was in the traffic pattern at the airport in Anahuac, Texas, when witnesses saw the main rotor head separate in flight and the gyroplane subsequently hit terrain, killing the pilot. The pilot’s friends and the mechanic who performed the last conditional inspection reported that the pilot/owner performed most of the maintenance on […]

The pilot was landing the Cessna 172 on a soft tidal beach in Juneau, Alaska. He reported that he had landed the day before at the same location without incident. During the landing roll, the landing gear contacted an area of soft sand, and the plane nosed over, resulting in substantial damage to the right wing and left […]

The Maule MX 7-235 pilot reported that he departed from a remote private air strip near San Ynez, Calif., and proceeded along a geological drainage ravine for three miles, then turned up a side canyon into rising terrain. As the plane approached a saddle in the terrain, he spotted two black bears. He entered a […]