NTSB: Fatal foggy crash was pilot's fault
The National Transportation Safety Board ruled a 2014 fatal plane crash in Kimball Township was likely due to pilot error.
"The pilot’s decision to continue flight below the minimum descent altitude without visually acquiring the runway and his delayed and improperly executed missed approach procedure in instrument meteorological conditions," were the probable causes of the crash, according to a report released by the NTSB.
Dec. 24, 2014, was unseasonably warm with dense fog and heavy rain for most of the afternoon and evening.
The 52-year-old Canadian pilot was the lone occupant in the twin-engine Piper Seneca II Dec. 24, 2014. The plane was registered to GL Holdings LLC, and had departed from Richmond, Virginia.
The private pilot was conducting a business flight and had obtained weather briefings the day before and the day of the flight.
"However, upon arrival in the vicinity of the airport, instrument meteorological conditions prevailed with visibility at or below the approach's visibility minimums. However, the pilot contacted the controller, obtained the weather information, and chose to continue the approach. Radar data showed that the airplane's final approach course was unstabilized," the report reads.
The plane was last known to be located about half a mile southwest of the missed approach.
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"The missed approach procedure was to climb to 2,500 ft, make a climbing left turn to 4,000 feet, proceed direct to the outer marker, and hold. The lack of radar data points below 1,100 feet between the approach and departure ends of runway 4 may indicate that the airplane was below 1,100 ft over the runway area, which may indicate that the pilot attempted to visually acquire the runway environment with visibilities that did not allow for adequate visual reference to land. Likely unable to see the runway, the pilot notified air traffic control that he was executing a missed approach."
The plane crashed about 0.39 miles north/northwest of the runway departure end, the report states. Rescue crews responded to the plane crash in the heavily wooded area in the 500 block of Allen Road in Kimball Township about dusk Dec. 24, 2014. Because of the rain and fog, it took rescuers four hours to find the crashed plane.
"The wreckage path length and slope through the trees was consistent with a shallow angle of impact at relative high speed. It is likely that the pilot continued flight below the minimum descent altitude without visually acquiring the runway and did not execute the missed approach procedures in a timely manner."
Investigators found no evidence to show the plane was not operating correctly.
"The filed alternate airport for the flight showed weather about the time of the accident that was above weather minimums for a precision approach that was available at the alternate airport," according to the report.
Contact Liz Shepard at (810) 989-6273 or lshepard@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter @lvshepard.