BEECH P35 — Harrison, NE

What happened

The night before the accident, the instrument-rated pilot received a weather briefing for the first leg of a multi-leg cross country flight and filed an instrument flight rules (IFR) flight plan. The next morning, the pilot and passenger completed the first leg and serviced the airplane with 49.5 gallons of aviation gasoline. The pilot had not received a weather briefing or filed a flight plan for the second leg of the flight but was in contact with air traffic control (ATC) and received visual flight rules (VFR) flight following for the first portion of the flight. The controllers experienced difficulty communicating with the pilot and the radar coverage was intermittent.

About 2 hours into the flight, the controller advised that the airplane was still not visible on radar and terminated VFR flight following. Recorded flight track information revealed that the airplane continued west toward the destination airport. About 15 to 30 minutes later, the pilot of another airplane observed the accident airplane headed west. Since he knew there were icing conditions and bad weather ahead, he attempted to radio the pilot but did not receive a response. About an hour later, the airplane’s flight track descended toward rising terrain, where it was briefly at the same elevation as the terrain, then climbed to about 320 ft above ground level (agl). The final flight track point showed the airplane at 250 ft agl and 150 kts groundspeed.

The airplane impacted open terrain with a shallow descent angle and the wings relatively level, then came to rest upright about 700 ft later. The end of the debris field was defined by the engine and propeller, which had separated from the airplane during the accident sequence. General fragmentation and the length of the wreckage debris field were indicative of a high-speed impact.

Postaccident examination of the airplane did not reveal any preimpact mechanical malfunctions or failures that would have precluded normal operation.

The airplane was likely operating in instrument meteorological conditions and in mixed freezing precipitation and snow at the time of the accident. If the pilot had obtained an adequate weather briefing, he likely would have been made aware of the adverse conditions and could have been able to alter his course to avoid the conditions. The conditions at the airport with the closest recorded weather station, directly along his route of flight, could have been a safe alternate airport.

Based on the flight track and weather conditions at the time of the accident, it is likely that the pilot was attempting to avoid instrument and icing conditions; he unknowingly descended toward rising terrain, then rapidly climbed to avoid the terrain, which resulted in a loss of control.

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