Having just made a parachutist’s drop, during a sky diving operation, the private pilot spiraled down from altitude to land, but had to extend his pattern to allow a departing acft to leave. During a long final approach, the engine failed and an emergency landing was attempted in a soft plowed farm field. The acft, on landing, dug in it’s nose wheel and turned over. No mechanical or fuel irregularities were discovered during the post accident investigation and meteorological conditions were favorable for carburetor icing according to the ‘icing probablility charts’.
Category: 1988
The pilot and three passengers were on a night flight in an aircraft that was equipped to carry skydivers. During the approach to land, the landing light failed. While attempting to get the light to operate, the pilot allowed an undershoot to develop. Subsequently, the aircraft landed short of the runway and the nose gear failed when the nose- wheel struck the runway lip. The aircraft then slid approximately 300 feet and nosed over. Mirl & threshold lights were installed, but there were no vasi lights.
The airplane landed uneventfully after a skydiver struck the horizontal stabilizer following an inadvertent deployment of his main parachute as he was preparing to exit the airplane. The skydiver was not injured and descended normally.
During a local parachute jump flight, the airplane was unable to gain enough altitude to clear rising terrain. The airplane collided with a tree and eventually the terrain. There were no reported mechanical failures or malfunctions. The acft handbook lists 2307 lbs as max gto wt. The acc acft weighed 2280 lbs. The cg was in the rear third of the envelope at aprx 103.35. The da was aprx 6200 ft.
While attempting to takeoff from a 1,865′ turf runway on an 85 degree day with four sky divers/passengers on board, the pilot was unable to attain sufficient airspeed for lift-off and elected to abort the takeoff. The pilot estimated that he had used about 60 – 70% of the runway before initiating the remedial action, and could not stop the aircraft before the end of the runway. It ran off the departure end of the runway, across a road, into a ditch, and then nosed over.
After dropping skydivers the pilot entered a descent to return to the airport for another load of jumpers. He was receiving radar advisories during the drop from a tracon controller. As the aircraft descended below 4,000 feet msl the controller terminated the radar advisory service. Immediately after the controller discontinued the service he asked the pilot to check for a stuck microphone switch. The aircraft continued its descent and collided with a camping trailer and building under construction in an extreme nose low attitude. The elevator trim was found in the full nose down position. No other malfunctions were found.
The plt dropped off parachutists at 8,500 ft and began to descend back to arpt. The a/c was descending at 145 mph, 19 inches mp, and 2300 rpm in a long circular pattern. The flt was on final between 500 and 1000 ft msl when the plt tried to apply pwr. The eng failed to respond. After switching the fuel selector and attempting to restart the eng twice, the plt decided to lnd in a field short of the runway. During landing roll, the nose gear broke off and the a/c nosed over. Later the eng was operated to full pwr with no evidence of failure or malfuction. Calculations indicated enough fuel for operation and fuel was found in carb bowl. According to icing probability curves, the a/c was flying in conditions conducive to carb icing. The plt stated that carb heat was not applied during descent.
The airplane lost power shortly after takeoff, at 100-200 ft agl. A witness reported hearing the engine backfire several times before it lost power completely. The airplane crashed shortly thereafter, as the pilot was attempting to return to the arpt. Exam of the engine revealed that the ignition harnesses and several spark plugs were in poor condition: several ignition leads were deteriorated; 3/4 of all leads were improperly connected to the magnetos. The spark plugs fired intermittently and broke down under pressure, when operationally tested. Other evidence of poor maintenance was also found, including water contamination in the carb bowl and a deteriorated carb accelerator pump. The airplane underwent a 100 hr inspection 4 months/128 flt hrs before the accident.
A commercial plt was flying a group of parachutists for a skydiving club. The aircraft encountered turbulence during a climb to 4,500 feet agl. As the second jumper was exiting, the aircraft dropped and the parachutist struck the horizontal stabilizer. The outer four inches were bent downward and the assembly was pulled one inch from the fuselage. The plt made a normal landing and an inspection revealed some bulkhead damage in the tail section. The parachutist was not injured.