Beechcraft A36 N976S

Summary

On 31 May 2012 at about 21:56 local time, a Beechcraft A36 registered N976S, operated by Earl Shirley, was involved in an accident near Macon, Mississippi, United States. One person was on board and one died. The aircraft was substantially damaged. The NTSB has published a probable cause for this accident; it is quoted in full below.

Date

31 May 2012 at 21:56

Classification

Accident

Location

Macon, Mississippi, United States

Coordinates

33.1102, -88.5590

Aircraft

Beechcraft A36

Registration

N976S

Category

Airplane

Engines

1

Operator

Earl Shirley

Operating rule

Part 91: General Aviation

Purpose of flight

Personal

Phase of flight

Not recorded

Route

Clearwater → Norman

Aircraft damage

Substantial

Weather

VMC

Light

Day

NTSB number

ERA12FA376

1 person died.

The pilot's decision to continue flight into an area of known thunderstorms, which resulted in an in-flight breakup. Contributing to the accident was the pilot's lack of experience in actual instrument meteorological conditions and his reliance on datalink weather radar imagery for tactical avoidance of convective weather.

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

Read the full NTSB narrative

While on a long cross-country flight on an instrument flight rules flight plan, the pilot attempted to fly through a line of thunderstorms. The airplane was equipped with satellite radar weather (NEXRAD Composite) and a stormscope/strikefinder. Using his equipment and talking with air traffic controllers, the pilot noted a break in the extreme precipitation, which still contained moderate to heavy precipitation, about 115 miles from the airplane's position. As the airplane approached that area, the pilot reported that a thunderstorm cell had filled it in; however, there was still a gap in the line of thunderstorms about 10 miles north. The pilot then attempted to fly to that gap and no further communications were received from the accident airplane. Review of the airplane's radar track was overlaid on a weather radar plot and revealed that the pilot attempted to fly though a Level 5, or heavy, thunderstorm cell. The turbulence from that cell resulted in an in-flight breakup of the airplane due to overstress, and the wreckage was scattered over a mile on the ground. The satellite radar weather information, most likely displayed in the airplane cockpit when the pilot was attempting to fly to a gap in thunderstorm cells, was about 6 to 7 minutes old at the time of the accident and depicted the airplane in an area clear of precipitation. The airplane's stormscope/strikefinder would have provided real-time lightning information; however, it would have had significantly less detail than composite weather radar depictions and thus be less suitable for use in attempting to navigate through a line of thunderstorms and in between thunderstorm cells. Both sources of weather information used were less suitable than onboard weather radar, which would have provided real-time weather radar images in the cockpit. The pilot had obtained his instrument rating less than 2 years before the accident and had accrued about 32 total hours of actual instrument experience. The NTSB recently issued a related Safety Alert, In-Cockpit NEXRAD Mosaic Imagery, viewable at www.ntsb.gov, describing how the actual age of NEXRAD data can differ significantly from the age displayed.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record.