Cessna T337G N37E

Summary

On 29 September 2014 at about 01:02 local time, a Cessna T337G registered N37E was involved in an accident near Plano, Illinois, 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

29 September 2014 at 01:02

Classification

Accident

Location

Plano, Illinois, United States

Nearest airport

Aurora Municipal Airport (ARR)

Coordinates

41.6389, -88.5478

Aircraft

Cessna T337G

Registration

N37E

Category

Airplane

Year built

1973

Engines

2

Operator

Not recorded

Operating rule

Part 91: General Aviation

Purpose of flight

Personal

Phase of flight

Not recorded

Route

Litchfield → Sugar Grove

Aircraft damage

Substantial

Weather

VMC

Light

Night

NTSB number

CEN14FA522

1 person died.

The pilot’s failure to recognize the airplane’s low altitude and arrest the airplane’s descent on approach to the airport in dark night conditions, which resulted in controlled flight into terrain. Contributing to the accident was the pilot’s degraded night vision due to glaucoma and a cataract and his impairment from the use of diphenhydramine.

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

Read the full NTSB narrative

The private pilot was approaching the destination airport at the conclusion of a cross-country flight in dark night, visual meteorological conditions. According to radar track data, the pilot had maintained a gradual descent profile during the final 7 minutes of the flight. About a minute before the accident, during a routine conversation, the tower controller at the destination airport told the pilot that he saw the airplane on radar at 1,800 ft mean sea level (msl). At that time, the airplane was about 1,200 ft above the ground and descending. The airplane subsequently collided with trees located along a ridge at an elevation of about 645 ft msl. The destination airport was located at 712 ft msl. According to radar track and engine monitoring data, the pilot did not attempt to slow the airplane's descent before the accident. A postaccident examination of the airplane and flight instruments did not reveal any anomalies that would have precluded normal operation during the accident flight. Additionally, the pilot had selected a Kollsman window setting that would have minimized any altimeter indication errors. The 80-year-old pilot had moderate-to-severe coronary artery disease, which can result in a sudden loss of consciousness; however, based on available radar track data and his communications with the airport tower controller, it is unlikely that his coronary artery disease contributed to the accident. The pilot also had longstanding, open-angle glaucoma, which had required a series of medical and surgical treatments over the years, and cataracts in both eyes. The cataract in the left eye had been removed in 2008, but the cataract in the right eye had recently increased in size. An ophthalmology evaluation in the weeks before the accident noted a significant increase in the size of a central scotoma (blind spot) related to longstanding glaucoma in the left eye, and declining corrected distant visual acuity bilaterally. Although the pilot met the Federal Aviation Administration medical certification standard of 20/40 vision in daylight conditions, the glaucoma and cataract likely impaired his night vision and, as such, impeded his ability to judge altitude using available visual cues in dark nighttime conditions. Additionally, toxicology testing identified diphenhydramine, a sedating antihistamine, in the pilot's blood at therapeutic levels. Research has shown that the use of diphenhydramine can impair cognitive and psychomotor performance. The pilot's failure to identify the airplane's low altitude during cruise descent further supports that he was likely impaired by the use of diphenhydramine.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record.