Cross-Country Crisis: No Briefing, Six Aboard and Snow on Arrival

Good weather at both ends of a trip says little about the middle. A long cross-country in winter crosses whatever is sitting between you and your destination, and the planning has to cover all of it.

The AOPA Air Safety Institute (ASI) re-creates this flight in its video "Accident Case Study: Cross-Country Crisis," which you can watch below. The summary that follows is ours and is based on the NTSB final report (ERA09FA145), which also gives the official probable cause. Watch the full case study for ASI's own analysis.

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The flight, in short

On January 30, 2009, a private pilot with single and multiengine ratings but no instrument rating took off from Lake in the Hills, Illinois in a Piper PA-34-200T Seneca, bound for Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina, about 580 nautical miles away. He had reported 2,200 hours on his last medical application. Five passengers were aboard, one more than planned.

A friend at the airport noticed the extra passenger and asked about weight and balance. He also urged the pilot to get a weather briefing and file a flight plan. The pilot said he would do both from his cell phone, but no flight plan was filed and the NTSB found no record of a briefing. The NTSB later calculated the airplane weighed about 4,902 pounds at takeoff, over its 4,570 pound maximum, with the center of gravity behind the aft limit. Raleigh was VFR for the expected arrival time, but snow was forecast and instrument conditions were observed along the route before, during and after the flight.

Hours into the flight, the pilot called Huntington tower with a mayday: “I'm flying v-f-r...low on fuel, and need a place to land.” The airport was IFR in light snow. Asked if he was capable of IFR flight, he said yes, though he wasn't instrument rated. Asked later how much fuel he had, he said “not much.” For several minutes he reported ground contact and then lost it. Controllers worked him onto a surveillance radar approach to runway 30, but about 3 miles out the airplane turned about 80 degrees off course, then turned back too far, and descended below the minimum altitude he'd been given. Witnesses described the snow as heavy. The airplane struck power lines and terrain about 4 miles from the airport, and all six people aboard were killed.

The NTSB determined the probable cause to be: “(1) The pilot’s failure to perform adequate preflight planning and to use available in flight resources in a timely manner and (2) his decision to continue visual-flight-rules flight in instrument meteorological conditions despite his lack of an instrument rating and proficiency in instrument flying, which resulted in spatial disorientation and impact with terrain.”

Why the whole route matters

The NTSB noted the pilot didn't ask for weather help or ATC help in flight until things had already gone wrong. By then he was low on fuel, in snow, over mountainous terrain and flying an overloaded airplane on instruments he wasn't trained to use. Each of those problems was easier to fix on the ground in Illinois.

• Brief the route, not just the endpoints. VFR at the destination doesn't mean VFR on the way there.
• Run weight and balance with the people and bags actually getting in the airplane, every time the load changes.
• Ask for help early. Flight Service and ATC can help with weather and options long before an emergency.
• Tell controllers the truth about your rating and fuel. They plan around what you say.