Bellanca 1730 — Henderson, KY

What happened

The student pilot and passenger had taken the airplane without permission from the owner on a night cross-country flight with an unknown destination. About 4 hours after departure, the airplane flew an approach to a closed airport but likely did not land. The airplane then climbed and flew about 10 miles away from the airport before returning; the last radar data indicated an altitude of about 700 ft above the ground about 1/2 mile south of the runway consistent with aa left downwind leg in the airport traffic pattern. The airplane impacted terrain in a near vertical nose-down attitude near midfield about 200 ft south of the runway. There were no ground scars leading up to the main wreckage, which was consistent with little or no forward airspeed and a loss of control. About 3-4 gallons of fuel were recovered from the right wing; however, a placard on the filler neck indicated 4 gallons of fuel were unusable. A trace amount of fuel was found in the left wing, and no fuel was found in the fuselage auxiliary tank. A post-accident examination of the airframe and engine revealed no preimpact anomalies that would have precluded normal operation; however, a lack of rotational scoring on the propeller blades was noted. It is likely that the airplane's engine lost power due to fuel exhaustion as the airplane was in the airport traffic pattern the second time, and the pilot failed to maintain sufficient airspeed, which resulted in an aerodynamic stall and impact with terrain.

The student pilot had logged 24 hours of total flight experience, 23 of which was dual instruction. He had logged 3 hours of dual cross-country experience, of which 1.4 hours were in the accident airplane earlier on the day of the accident. He had no other experience in an airplane of the same make/model. He had logged a total of 4 hours at night in a different airplane make/model. Thus, it is likely that the pilot had little experience in fuel planning and management, night operations, and emergency procedures in the accident airplane make/model to help him deal with the loss of engine power on approach to the airport at night.

Toxicology performed on the student pilot was positive for methamphetamine, cocaine, and their metabolites. Although the test results could not be directly correlated to the exact time of use, the amount, or the residual effects at the time of the accident, the results suggest use within hours of the accident. It is likely that impairment from the student pilot's use of cocaine and methamphetamine contributed to his unsafe decision-making to embark on the night cross- county flight in an unfamiliar and complex airplane, with a passenger, on the night of the accident.

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