Aftermath: Failure to Land

Peter Garrison

Sunday, May 18, 2014 at 07:12 PM ET

Verified

Key Takeaways:

A pilot on an IFR flight encountered deteriorating weather and made multiple unsuccessful instrument approaches at various airports, neglecting a lower-minimum ILS option available at one location.
Despite critically low fuel and inquiries about landing at a military base only available in an emergency, the pilot hesitated to formally declare an emergency.
The pilot ultimately declared a fuel emergency moments before crashing due to fuel exhaustion, with the NTSB citing his failure to land at suitable airports and significant delay in declaring the emergency as causes.

See a mistake? Contact us.

The 600-hour, instrument-rated pilot of a Piper Arrow left Georgia early on a Sunday afternoon for Delaware, where he was scheduled to perform a surgery the following day. The forecast weather at the destination and nearby airports was near minimums; the pilot filed Baltimore/Washington International (BWI) as his alternate.

As he approached his filed destination of Summit Airport (EVY) in Middletown, Delaware, he got a call from the Dover Air Force Base approach controller who was working him.