Simons LANCAIR 235 N1142W

Summary

On 4 September 1998 at about 14:58 local time, a Simons LANCAIR 235 registered N1142W was involved in an accident near Llano, California, United States. One person was on board and one died. The aircraft was destroyed. The NTSB has published a probable cause for this accident; it is quoted in full below.

Date

4 September 1998 at 14:58

Classification

Accident

Location

Llano, California, United States

Coordinates

34.4901, -117.7699

Aircraft

Simons LANCAIR 235

Registration

N1142W

Category

Airplane

Engines

1

Operator

Not recorded

Operating rule

Part 91: General Aviation

Purpose of flight

Personal

Phase of flight

Not recorded

Route

Chino → Redmond

Aircraft damage

Destroyed

Weather

IMC

Light

Day

NTSB number

LAX98FA282

1 person died.

Pilot's inadvertent VFR flight into instrument meteorological conditions , which resulted in spatial disorientation and a subsequent loss of aircraft control.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record. This site does not paraphrase or interpret it.

Read the full NTSB narrative

The non-instrument rated pilot received a weather briefing for his original route of flight the morning of the accident and was advised that IFR conditions existed along that route but that VFR conditions existed through the desert areas. The briefer told the pilot that mid level broken to scattered cloud layers were forecasted and that no thunderstorm activity was expected until after 1100. About 40 minutes into his flight, a pilot friend in a second airplane that was traveling to the same destination caught up with the pilot and they conversed via radio. The second pilot indicated that he filed an IFR flight plan due to the uncertain nature of the weather forecasts. The second pilot stated that the weather started to turn bad, and the accident pilot told him that he was going to turn back. The second pilot saw him make a 180-degree turn and descend into clouds; he did not receive any further communication from the accident pilot. Witnesses at the accident site stated that it had been raining and the clouds were all the way down to the ground, with one witness saying she could not see the neighbor's house 1/4-mile away. One witness stated that the airplane flew directly over her house no higher than 75 feet, made a tight right turn, and then crashed to the ground with a loud bang. The extensively fragmented wreckage was distributed over a distance of 718 feet. Examination of the airframe, engine, propeller, and avionics revealed no discrepancies. Review of the pilot's logbook revealed no evidence of instrument flight experience since 1958.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record.