A Night Flight Leads a Pilot to a Tragic End

Rather than reverse course, a former Marine continued to turn until he was heading into the dark unknown of bad weather in 2020.

Peter Garrison

Wednesday, March 06, 2024 at 10:53 AM ET

Verified

About 25 minutes after takeoff and shortly after crossing the Arkansas border, a 31-year-old pilot, whose in-command time amounted to 75 hours, lost control of a Cirrus SR22 and went down in a remote woodland. All aboard perished. [iStock]

Key Takeaways:

A private pilot with limited experience, flying at night with family against instructor advice, crashed after losing control due to spatial disorientation upon inadvertently entering weather.
The NTSB focused on the pilot's overconfidence, disregard for advice, and lack of preparedness for challenging night and instrument conditions, despite his aircraft being well-equipped.
The tragedy underscores the critical danger for VFR pilots entering Instrument Meteorological Conditions (IMC) at night, leading to disorientation and failure to utilize essential safety tools like autopilots.

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Around 7 in the evening on September 4, 2020, the Muskogee, Oklahoma (KMKO), pilot-owner of a Cirrus SR22 telephoned his flight instructor to report he was going to fly to Pickens, South Carolina (KLQK), that night. His instructor advised him to wait until morning. Instead, the pilot fueled the airplane, loaded his father, wife, and child aboard, and took off at 8:27 p.m. for the four-hour flight.

As you will have guessed, since you are reading about this in Aftermath and not in I Learned About Flying From That, the flight did not end well. About 25 minutes after takeoff and shortly after crossing the Arkansas border, the 31-year-old pilot, whose in-command time amounted to 75 hours, lost control of the airplane and went down in a remote woodland. All aboard perished.