Aviation Safety

At 14:10 EDT, a Cessna 172S sank in Lake Michigan two miles west/southwest of Muskegon. The pilot and passenger received minor injuries from hypothermia. The pilot said ATIS reported a ceiling of 1,400 feet prior to his departure, and he received a special VFR clearance to depart. He flew out over Lake Michigan and the visibility dropped to zero in fog. He requested vectors back to VFR conditions and was trying to return to the airport when the airplane struck the water. The pilot was not instrument rated….

At 12:02 PST, a Commander 114 struck a pole after takeoff from Hanford Municipal Airport. The pilot and three passengers died. The airport manager said he watched the airplane on its takeoff roll and noticed that, when the Commander was half-way down the 3,962-foot runway the nosewheel still had not lifted off. He said it appeared the pilot jerked or horsed the airplane into the air at the end of the runway without sufficient speed to fly. Just over a mile from the runway, the airplane collided with a telephone pole at a point 36 feet off the ground….

At 07:43 EDT, a Cessna 404 lost power in both engines after takeoff from Capital City Airport and made an off-airport landing. The pilot was not injured. Fuel receipts were found that indicate the aircraft was serviced with 25 gallons of jet fuel in each wing tank….

At about 14:07 EST, a Beech D18S operating as a Part 135 cargo flight was ditched in the Atlantic Ocean about 47 miles east of Bimini. The pilot was not injured and one passenger sustained minor injuries. The flight originated an hour earlier at Opa-Locka, Fla. The flight departed with all five fuel tanks full. While about 45 miles east of Bimini, climbing through 2,300 feet with a good rate of climb, the left manifold pressure dropped to 27 inches and the propeller rpm dropped to 1,300. The pilot reported no unusual vibration; the fuel pressure and oil pressure gauges indicated normal. He repositioned the fuel selector but the left engine would not restart. He then feathered the left propel…

At 12:02 EST, a Beech C-90 struck a communications antenna as it approached the Somerset-Pulaski County Airport, killing the pilot and three passengers. The airplane departed Ohio State University Airport at 10:47. As the airplane neared SME, the Indy Center controller asked the pilot which approach he wanted. The pilot replied that he wanted to execute the SDF [Simplified Directional Finding] approach. The controller approved the pilots request and instructed the pilot to maintain 4,000 feet until established on the approach. The airplane maintained 4,000 feet until it passed abeam of the airport, at which time it began to descend. The last radar contact occurred at 11:59:40 with the plane…

At approximately 20:00 MST, a Cessna 172 crashed while on landing approach to Bolinder Field. The pilot was seriously injured. The pilot was practicing night flight and had just taken off and remained in the traffic pattern. While coming in for his first landing, he entered a fog bank and crashed about one mile short of the runway….

At about 14:00 EDT, a Piper J3C-65 crashed while maneuvering near Lanconia, leaving the two occupants seriously injured. The pilot reportedly took off from his fathers grass field and entered a right turn, 150 feet above the ground. After completing the turn the airplane pitched up, stalled and descended to the ground almost vertically. An investigator said a sample of fuel that was drained from the airplane after the accident was green and cloudy. Fuel examined in the gascolator resembled muddy water. The airplane had last been fueled in October 1999 and had not been flown since….

At 14:37 PST, a Robinson R44 lost power during a practice autorotation at the Palo Alto Airport. The two occupants were uninjured. The pilot said he was performing an autorotation and that the engine had been at idle for a long period of time. He said he did not think he was going to make the runway and added power, but the engine didnt come on. The pilot said he did not use carburetor heat during the autorotation. The temperature was 64 F and the dewpoint was 52, in the range for serious icing at glide power….

At 16:54 CST, a Piper PA-28-180 crashed while maneuvering near Frisco, killing the two occupants. The flight had originated from the Aero Country Airport in McKinney about 14 minutes earlier. The pilot and passenger were employees of Beal Aerospace Technologies and were buzzing the business. A Beal employee said he went outside to see two co-workers do a fly-by. He reported that the airplane initially flew in from the east approximately 50-60 feet off the ground, then turned away from Beal Aerospace, and then back toward Beal for a second fly-by. During the second pass, the airplane was even lower than before and the airplane struck trees, a telephone wire and a railroad trestle. Other wit…

At 12:26 CST, a Cessna 310Q struck a ditch after an aborted takeoff at the Kestral Airpark. The pilot was not injured. Investigators said the aircraft door popped open during takeoff roll, prompting the pilot to abort the takeoff about two-thirds of the way down the runway. The airplane skidded along the last 250 feet of runway, went into a ditch and struck a fence….