Piper PA28R N56258

Summary

On 30 October 2019 at about 14:32 local time, a Piper PA28R registered N56258 was involved in an accident near Atlanta, Georgia, United States. 2 people were on board and 2 died. The aircraft was destroyed. The NTSB has published a probable cause for this accident; it is quoted in full below.

Date

30 October 2019 at 14:32

Classification

Accident

Location

Atlanta, Georgia, United States

Nearest airport

Dekalb-Peachtree (PDK)

Coordinates

33.8569, -84.2906

Aircraft

Piper PA28R

Registration

N56258

Category

Airplane

Year built

1973

Engines

1

Operator

Not recorded

Operating rule

Part 91: General Aviation

Purpose of flight

Personal

Phase of flight

Not recorded

Route

Atlanta → Salisbury

Aircraft damage

Destroyed

Weather

IMC

Light

Day

NTSB number

ERA20FA021

2 people died.

The pilot's loss of control due to spatial disorientation while flying in instrument meteorological conditions. Contributing to the accident was the failure of the vacuum pump and its associated instruments.

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

Read the full NTSB narrative

The pilot departed on an instrument flight rules flight plan into instrument meteorological conditions and contacted the departure controller as the airplane was in a climbing right turn to the assigned heading. Shortly thereafter, the pilot began a right turn and the controller instructed him to turn left direct to the destination. The pilot turned left two more times before informing the controller that there was a problem with the airplane’s vacuum system. Radar data indicated that, at that time, the airplane was at 5,075 ft mean sea level at a ground speed of 80 knots and turned left briefly before entering a rapidly descending right turn; radar contact was lost shortly thereafter. The last recorded ground speed was 154 knots. The wreckage impacted a residential apartment building 1.5 miles southeast of the departure airport. Accident site evidence and impact damage to the airplane were indicative of a vertical or near vertical impact. Portions of the empennage were located separately from the main wreckage and displayed fractures consistent with overstress failure, indicative of an inflight breakup. Examination of the airframe revealed no evidence of mechanical malfunctions that would have precluded normal operation. Examination of the engine revealed that the composite drive shaft of the vacuum pump had sheared, which likely resulted in the inflight loss of the pilot’s primary attitude reference. The airplane’s maintenance records showed that the vacuum pump had been installed about 16 years and nearly 600 flight hours before the accident. Review of the pilot’s flight logs indicated that he had accumulated about 19 hours of instrument flight experience and six instrument approaches in the 90 days before the accident in addition to over 5,000 total hours of flight experience and more than 2,000 hours of flight experience in the accident airplane make and model. However, given the airplane’s radar flight track, and that the airplane broke up inflight, it is likely that the pilot became spatially disoriented following the failure of the vacuum pump, which resulted in a loss of control.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record.