Controlled Flight Into Terrain · NTSB ERA19FA070
Piper PA28 — Blairsville, GA
| Date | December 20, 2018 |
| Location | Blairsville, GA |
| Aircraft | Piper PA28 |
| Purpose of flight | Personal |
| Conditions | Night · Visual Meteorological Cond |
| Phase / occurrence | Approach-VFR pattern final Controlled flight into terr/obj (CFIT) |
| Pilot age | 56 |
| Pilot total time | 823 hrs · Building experience |
| Time in type | 753 hrs |
| Fatalities | 3, 1 serious |
Probable cause
NTSB findings
- Personnel issues-Psychological-Attention/monitoring-Monitoring environment-Pilot - C
- Aircraft-Aircraft oper/perf/capability-Performance/control parameters-Altitude-Not attained/maintained - C
- Environmental issues-Conditions/weather/phenomena-Light condition-Dark-Effect on operation - C
- Personnel issues-Experience/knowledge-Experience/qualifications-Recent experience-Pilot - F
What happened
The private pilot was approaching the airport for landing following a local personal flight in night visual meteorological conditions when the airplane impacted 60 to 70-ft-tall trees about 1/2 mile from the end of the runway. Although the runway lights were illuminated at the time of the accident, the runway was not equipped with a precision approach path indicator (PAPI) or visual approach slope indicator (VASI) light system.
Examination of the airplane and the engine did not reveal any preaccident mechanical discrepancies that would have precluded normal operation. A review of the pilot's logbook revealed that the pilot had not flown at night in just over four months preceding the accident.
It is likely that, in the absence of a PAPI or VASI system by which to judge the airplane's approach path, the sparsely-lit terrain off the approach end of the runway may have created an illusion that resulted in the pilot's descent into terrain short of the runway.