PIPER PA20 — Challis, ID

What happened

A witness at the departure airport watched the accident airplane take off and fly into a box canyon. Shortly thereafter, the witness saw a dust cloud in the same area.

A friend of the accident pilot reported that they were camping in the area and had flown to the departure airport earlier in the day. The friend reported that they waited until later in the day to fly back to their camping area due to density altitude considerations. He watched the accident airplane depart to the north and then turn back toward the airport. He then departed in his airplane and flew to the camp site destination, where he expected to meet up with the accident pilot and passenger. He reported them missing when they did not arrive at the camp site.

Postaccident examination of the airplane revealed no evidence of any preexisting mechanical malfunction that would have precluded normal operation.

The accident site was in a box canyon about 1 1/2 miles north of the airport at an elevation of 6,240 ft above mean sea level (msl). The change in elevation from the departure airport to the accident location was about 2,040 ft. As the airplane climbed, the calculated climb performance from the departure airport to the accident site location would have likely degraded from about 477 ft per minute (fpm) to about 360 fpm. The accident is consistent with the pilot turning toward rising terrain with limited climb performance that resulted in the pilot’s failure to maintain obstacle clearance and a subsequent impact with terrain.

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