Aviation Safety

The NTSB in early April released preliminary general aviation accident data for 2008. No one should be happy. For example, there were 1559 accidents involving Part 91 operations, 275 of which involved fatalities. Those fatal accidents killed a total of 495 persons, one fewer than the previous year. One. After all the training improvements, the influx of new, well-equipped aircraft, all the new, high-tech equipment being installed in older ones, after weather-forecasting and observation enhancements on the ground and in the air, only one. And the accident rate jumped up, from 6.92 accidents per 100,000 hours in 2007 to 7.11 in 2008. This is despite an overall reduction in accidents, from 2007s 1650 to 1559 last year, and stems from fewer flying hours, a reduction of almost 10 percent. These results are pretty sorry for an industry desperate to be taken seriously.

I finally got around to catching up on back issues, and came across “Soft Spot” (Editors Log, January 2009), having spent June through September flying from Alaska to and around the lower 48. I relied heavily on my Garmin 496. On August 24, 2008, I had a short leg from Springfield, Mo., to Marion County, Ark. Nexrad showed a line of cells marching across the middle of my flight path. Between the weather briefing and the animated radar, I knew these were moving to the southwest, and I knew the speed of their movement. Space between the cells looked pretty good, so I anticipated I could find a decent path through. Given the technologys delays in displaying radar data on the 496, I chose a path just on the back (upwind) side of one of the displayed cells. I figured it would have moved on from my path and I could get through the gap before the next one arrived. This worked exactly as expected, putting me essentially in the clear area between the two. This meant my flight path headed southeast, instead of almost directly south, from Springfield. The diversion added very little to the flight time, but made the VFR flight very comfortable.

The student pilot was practicing touch-and-go landings in calm wind conditions and inadvertently landed near the left edge of the runway. During the landing roll, he did not correct back to the runway centerline prior to adding power for takeoff. Soon after adding power, the airplane departed the left side of the runway. By the time the pilot was able to bring the airplane to a stop, it had traveled about 900 feet over uneven terrain. Prior to the time the airplane came to a stop, its nose landing gear strut collapsed, resulting in substantial damage to the firewall.

The airplane collided with terrain at about 1642 Pacific time, shortly after taking off on a planned IFR flight in instrument conditions. The private pilot and two passengers were killed. The airplane sustained substantial damage to the wings, fuselage, and empennage from impact forces and a post-crash fire.

The airplane lost total engine power during the initial climb and collided with trees and the ground at 1642 Eastern time, sustaining structural damage to the airframe. Visual conditions prevailed. The commercial pilot received serious injuries; the pilot-rated passenger in the left front seat received minor injuries.

At 1740 Central time, the airplane was substantially damaged when it collided with trees and terrain during an attempted go around. The commercial pilot and the passenger were fatally injured. Visual conditions prevailed. The airport manager observed the accident. She stated, “It appeared to be higher than I would have expected. As it flared, it seemed to float for an unusually long period. By midpoint on the runway, it seemed unlikely that he would be able to complete the landing successfully.”

At approximately 1115 Mountain time, a Cirrus SR22 was substantially damaged when, during an attempted go-around, it struck a snow berm and nosed over. Visual conditions prevailed. The pilot and two passengers were not injured, but an additional passenger did receive minor injuries.

The airplane sustained substantial damage at 1353 Central time when it impacted the runway during landing. Visual conditions prevailed; the solo student pilot was not injured. This was the student pilots first solo flight; her instructor observed from a distance. The pilot made a landing approach and flared prematurely, landing hard. The airplane bounced and struck the runway, collapsing the nose gear.

The pilot stated that the tailwheel-equipped airplane started veering to the right during the landing roll. Despite his control inputs, the airplane continued to veer to the right and tipped onto its left wingtip before coming to rest upright in a snow bank. According to the pilot, the left tailwheel steering link spring retaining clip was missing, and a search failed to locate it on the runway or near the airplane. A missing steering link would allow the tailwheel to freely caster.

The airplane was destroyed shortly after takeoff at 0905 Pacific time when it impacted terrain about 300 feet from the departure end of the runway. The pilot/owner and mechanic passenger were killed. Visual conditions prevailed for the post-maintenance test flight. Witnesses reported hearing the engine sputter and observed smoke emanating from the cowling on the takeoff/initial climbout. Witnesses then observed the airplane make a left turn, enter a spin and impact the ground. After the airplane impacted the ground it burst into flames. The flight was the first for the airplane following installation of an overhauled engine.