The pilot reported that he and a passenger were preparing to take off in a Quicksilver Sport from an airport in Camarillo, Calif. The airplane has a rear-mounted engine and the engine was running when the passenger’s girlfriend approached the airplane from behind to check an airframe-mounted camera she had installed to document the flight. Several […]
aviation accidents
Airplane caught in power lines
A witness on the ground in Boulder, Utah, said the Cessna 140 was flying at a low altitude over an area that had power lines about 100 feet above ground level. The plane hit the lines and crashed, killing the pilot and passenger. The post-accident examination did not find any mechanical issues with the airplane. Local residents reported seeing […]
Hard landing leads to gear failure
During an instructional flight in a Cessna 172RG over Redmond, Ore., the CFI and student were unable to fully extend or retract the left main landing gear. They made several attempts to fix the problem, but were unsuccessful, so they made a gear-up landing. The post-accident examination revealed that the pivot assembly for the left main landing […]
Piper gets away during hand-propping
The pilot was attempting to hand-prop a Piper Comanche by himself in Phillipsburgh, Ohio. He did not set the parking brake before he began the procedure. When the engine started, the airplane began to move forward. The pilot tried to reach into the cockpit to grab the hand brake, but in the process pushed the throttle in, which made […]
Night approach goes bad
The pilot, flying a Grumman Tiger, was attempting to land at the airport in Ankeny, Iowa, in night VFR conditions. He listened to the AWOS and learned the wind was from 220° at 10 knots, gusting to 26 knots. The first attempt to land resulted in a bounce, so he did a go-around. He came around […]
Oil starvation, miscommunication prove fatal
The lineman who serviced the Beech Bonanza prior to the flight noticed visible oil leaks on the airplane during refueling. He pointed them out to the pilot. The pilot, accompanied by two passengers, was flying in VFR conditions at an altitude of about 7,500 feet over Palm Coast, Fla., when he reported engine vibrations and an “oil pressure problem” to air traffic control […]
Super Cub breaks through the ice
The pilot took off in his Super Cub from a private airstrip in a wheel/ski-equipped airplane on a local area flight. He attempted to land on an ice-covered, frozen lake, and, due to the bare ice conditions, he elected to land in a wheel configuration instead of ski configuration. During the landing roll, as the airplane […]
Failed O-ring leads to loss of power
The student pilot, accompanied by a flight instructor, were practicing takeoffs and landings in a Piper Cherokee at the airport in Winder, Ga., when the airplane’s engine lost all power. The CFI took the controls and attempted to glide to a runway. The airplane was not aligned with the runway centerline and went off the edge […]
Failure to reset altimeter results in fatal low approach
The 387-hour instrument-rated pilot, who had just 17 hours in actual IMC, and a passenger were flying in a Piper Seneca in IFR conditions near Manteo, N.C. The weather at the destination airport at the time of arrival was IFR because of reduced visibility with low drifting fog. According to the passenger, the flight was normal and […]