PIPER PA-28-140 — Castle Rock, CO

What happened

The airplane was on a multi-leg, cross-country flight. Radar data showed the airplane descending toward its intended destination at night. About 18 miles from its final destination, the airplane made several turns off its intended track, and it then resumed its track toward the airport while about 1,500 ft above ground level. The radar flight track and weather radar images showed that the airplane was flying in between two areas of convective storm activity during this time. Radar contact was lost about 16 miles from the destination. No distress calls were heard from the pilot. The airplane wreckage was found in a pasture the following day. The airplane had impacted the ground in a near-vertical attitude. One witness reported hearing the sound of the engine revving but did not see the airplane, and the propeller blades showed evidence of being powered at the time of impact. Examination of the airframe components, flight controls, and the engine did not reveal any mechanical anomalies that would have precluded normal operation.

Two residents in the vicinity of the accident site reported that they observed strong surface wind gusts and a drop in temperature about the time of the accident, and surface weather observation stations in the region of the convective activity reported surface wind gusts up to 30 mph about the time of the accident. Weather information indicated that the area of the convective weather activity on either side of the flight track was dissipating, which resulted in outflow and low-level windshear at or near the surface.

According to a friend of the pilot, the pilot had been traveling the day before the accident. She stated that the pilot called her the night before the flight and that he told her that he was exhausted; however, it could not be determined what time the pilot went to sleep the night before the flight and, therefore, whether fatigue played a role in the accident. Based on the available information, it is likely that the pilot was attempting to maneuver the airplane between the two convective storms at the end of a long day and that the pilot lost airplane control after encountering the convective outflow from the storm cells. It is also likely that the pilot's relatively low overall flight experience (115 hours) and low night flight experience (12 hours) contributed to his inability to fly in the environmental conditions that were present.

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