CESSNA 172M — Fredericksburg, VA

What happened

About 30 minutes before the flight, the pilot reserved the airplane to complete "pattern work." The pilot's fiancée arrived at the airport as the pilot was walking toward the airplane, and, following a brief altercation, the pilot boarded the airplane and took off. About that time, sheriff's deputies arrived at the airport because they had been notified by the pilot's fiancée that she believed the pilot intended to commit suicide. The deputies, fiancée, and flight instructor subsequently observed the airplane maneuver erratically before climbing to an altitude of about 3,000 feet. The airplane then pitched down into a near-vertical descent. The witnesses reported hearing the engine increase to "full" power. The airplane impacted the ground at high speed and then burst into flames. Although the wreckage was significantly fragmented and fire-damaged, no evidence of any preimpact mechanical malfunctions or failures of the airframe or engine that would have precluded normal operation were observed. The pilot had been diagnosed with "severe recurrent major depression" about 7 weeks before the accident and was subsequently prescribed an antidepressant and advised to seek counseling. The medical examiner determined that the manner of death was "suicide." Postmortem toxicological testing of the pilot's remains revealed the presence of ethanol; however, the investigation was unable to determine if preflight ethanol ingestion played a role in pilot's decision-making.

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