Jim Davis
Aircraft registration: ZS-DED
Date and time of accident: Soon
Type of aircraft: Cessna 172
Pilot’s name: Joe Doe
Type of operation: Private
PIC license type: PPL
License valid: Yes
PIC age: 56
PIC total hours: 120
PIC hours on type 20
Last point of departure: Rand Airport
Point of intended landing: Private strip in Natal
Location of accident site: Mountainous terrain
Meteorological info: IMC
POB: 1+2
People injured: 0
People killed: 1+2
Synopsis
The pilot plus his wife and teenage daughter took off from Rand Airport for a flight to a private strip 20 miles south of Ladysmith in the Natal midlands. They intended to spend a long weekend at a family reunion.
The pilot obtained a weather forecast which indicated extensive mid to low level cloud with occasional embedded thunderstorms in large parts of Natal.
According to two witnesses who spoke to the pilot before takeoff at Rand Airport, they had both advised him to postpone the flight until the next day when the forecasts were for fine weather all the way. He told another witness that he had to be there that day for his father’s 80th birthday.
At about 16h30 local time, a farm worker in the Ladysmith area said he heard an aircraft overhead but couldn’t see it because the clouds were very low and covered the hilltops in the area. The witness said that it sounded as if the aircraft was circling overhead. Then the engine noise increased steadily until the aircraft appeared out of the cloud in a steep nose-down and banked attitude. It impacted the terrain in a small wooded area. He said there was a loud noise and a bright light as the aircraft exploded in flames.
The witness ran to a farm house about a kilometre away. He notified the farmer and then accompanied him plus two farm workers in a pickup truck to the scene of the accident.
The aircraft was completely destroyed by the impact and fire. The engine was buried in the soft earth following recent heavy rain. There were no survivors.
Additional Information
The aircraft was correctly licensed and maintained.
The pilot was correctly licensed and current. He did not hold an Instrument Rating or Night Rating.
During the pilot’s recent PPL training and type conversion he had a total of six different instructors.
Probable cause
The pilot lost control of the aircraft while on a VFR flight when he entered IMC. It is possible that he encountered thunderstorm activity in the area. The aircraft was not equipped with weather radar.
Jim’s comments
Oh dear, oh dear, when will they ever learn? Well, that was my first thought. However, I must confess that, through a friend, I happen to have inside knowledge of some of the events leading up to this accident. There are three things that stood out for me.
- He was a particularly conscientious pilot who made a point of doing everything correctly and legally.
- He was heard to be bragging about a previous extended flight into cloud during which he eventually descended into a broad valley when the GPS told him he had passed the mountain tops.
- He did not have one instructor who was overall responsible for his training.
Points 1 and 2 above simply don’t gel. It makes no sense that a law-abiding pilot would brag about an illegal operation. The only conclusion I can come to is that he saw nothing wrong with what he did because the dangers of VFR into IMC had never been sufficiently explained or demonstrated to him.
Unbelievably, it seems this was the case: The pilot had no idea of the dangers of VFR into IMC. Not one of his instructors had sat him down and explained the problems of flying without a visible horizon. Ideally, one of them should have put him under the hood, or taken him into cloud and let him experience loss of control first hand.
I believe this should be part of every pilot’s training. No amount of explanation is a substitute for the experience of losing control in cloud. It’s almost impossible to believe that the senses you have trusted all your life can suddenly abandon you.
Now his story takes another twist. I was chatting to a friend of mine – a retired airline pilot, who we will call Captain Mac. Now, Mac had been acting as a sort of mentor to Joe Doe. It seems that the pilot had previously flown through a small amount of cloud using his autopilot. Captain Mac had gently reprimanded him and gone to a lot of trouble explaining the dangers of going into IMC without a current instrument rating.
So the accident pilot did receive wise guidance to not do it again. He simply hadn’t taken Captain Mac’s warning to heart. He was a confident and successful man who basically didn’t believe that he wouldn’t be able to tell up from down.
In summary, he had ventured into a bit of cloud, on the autopilot, and taken some mild flak from Mac. He ignored this and again flew into cloud, on autopilot, for a lengthy instrument flight and GPS letdown. This is when Mac told me what was going on. He was incensed about his fledgling acting like a Darwin Award contestant.
Now many of us older pelicans have regretted not crapping on youngsters who were going off the rails. We later hear that the newbies have turned their unsuspecting families into strawberry jam against a cliff. We naturally feel guilty for not speaking up.
Sound familiar? The doctor in a Bonanza syndrome.
Captain Mac did speak up – pretty forcefully. Here’s part of an email he sent to the accident pilot:
I am compelled to comment, this I do as somebody with 40 years of flying experience on many, many types, both small and very large, specifically with more than 30 years as an ALTP, now ATP, with Instructors Rating Grade 1, IR Testing Officer and DE.
IT’S TOTALLY UNACCEPTABLE FOR ANY NON INSTRUMENT RATED PILOT TO ENTER CLOUD
It’s highly dangerous as the likelihood of suffering Spatial Disorientation with catastrophic results is almost 100% guaranteed.
There are some who think they can do it but mark my word they can’t. Spatial Disorientation can strike any pilot, even a 20,000 hour Airline pilot.
Joe’s reply was extremely brief and basically gave Captain Mac the middle finger.
At this stage Captain Mac and I gave up on the man and quietly entered his name in our LBBs. These are the Little Black Books in which many experienced pilots record the names of those most likely to kill themselves.
When the inevitable happens we draw a red line through the name, and enter the date. And perhaps shed a tear for the young family whose lives were crushed by one man’s ego.
The Reason Behind the Probable Cause
The official probable cause is simply – VFR into IMC. But why would a well-trained pilot do that? Would an Air Force pilot do it? Or one who trained at a top professional pilot academy? I think not, and I’ll tell you why.
It’s because professional schools are disciplined. They plan each step of a pilot’s training, and they do their best to pair instructors and pupils appropriately. More mature pupils don’t want to be continually corrected by instructors younger than their kids. Female pupils often prefer female instructors. There are a hundred considerations when matching instructors to pupils.
So when you phone to make a booking, a good school doesn’t cast around to see if they can find an instructor who is not doing anything. They tell you when your instructor will be available. It doesn’t sound like a big deal does it? Well, it’s a huge deal – from the instructor’s point of view, and yours.
No instructor can put heart and soul into every pupil who passes his way. He doesn’t know what your strong and weak points are. He can spend the whole lesson finding these out, without teaching you anything new. Also, how can he really care about your future if he is never going to see you again?
Strangely, your instructor is human – his reward is in being creative. He takes pride in turning a fledgling into a good, safe pilot.
So if you have one instructor who is responsible for all your training, then he rejoices in your successes and supports you through your difficult patches.
The single-instructor system ensures that each exercise has been covered thoroughly and tested – usually by the CFI.
Take-home stuff:
- If your school can’t give you your own instructor who will conduct at least 80% of your training, find another school.
- The syllabus doesn’t call for a loss-of-control-in-IMC demonstration. Ask your school to include it. It’s going to happen to you at least once in your life. Make sure that when it does, it’s a planned exercise with your instructor at your side to rescue you.
This story is true except that the accident hasn’t happened – yet. If you know the pilot – or others like him – perhaps you can show him this story.