CESSNA T240 — San Diego, CA

What happened

A family friend reported the pilot and airplane missing. The friend stated that they drove the pilot to the departure airport, dropped him off and were meeting him at the intended destination airport. The friend became concerned when the pilot did not arrive and she began to track his location on via a commercial sourced ADS-B system. She also attempted to text him but noted that her messages were not being received by the pilot’s cell phone.

Review of the recorded communication between the air traffic controller local controller at the destination airport and the accident pilot revealed that the controller had issued landing instructions for a straight-in approach to runway 28R, which the pilot acknowledged. The controller made repeated attempts to reestablish communication with the pilot; however, no further radio communication from the pilot was received.

ADS-B data showed that the airplane’s flight track was consistent for an approach to landing on runway 28 at the destination airport, however, the airplane continued on a southwesterly heading for about 470 nautical miles until the ADS-B data was lost.

An Alert Notice (ALNOT) was issued about 16 minutes after ADS-B contact had been lost and a search for the pilot and airplane commenced. Neither the pilot or airplane were located. Land and sea-based searches were suspended 2 days after the airplane went missing.

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