PIPER PA-32-260 — Yakutat, AK

What happened

The pilot obtained a weather briefing and departed on a day visual flight rules (VFR) cross-country flight. Although visual meteorological conditions prevailed at the departure airport, the current and forecast conditions were marginal VFR and instrument flight rules along the flight route. Flight service issued an alert notice when the airplane was overdue for arrival, and an extensive search was conducted. Radar coverage was limited; however, several radar targets were consistent with the accident airplane's route. The first and last targets were recorded about 13 and 18 minutes, respectively, after departure and indicated that the airplane was at an altitude of 1,100 ft mean sea level and located in an area between coastline and mountainous terrain. However, the airplane and pilot were not found. The airplane was not equipped with, nor was it required to be equipped with, a digital 406-MHz emergency locator transmitter; such a transmitter may have aided search and rescue efforts.

An editorial "what led to it / how to avoid it" analysis for this accident is generated separately and will appear here.