Van's RV-12IS N123RR

Summary

On 27 February 2022 at about 14:58 local time, a Van's RV-12IS registered N123RR was involved in an accident near Big Pine Key, Florida, 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

27 February 2022 at 14:58

Classification

Accident

Location

Big Pine Key, Florida, United States

Coordinates

24.9215, -81.5805

Aircraft

Van's RV-12IS

Registration

N123RR

Category

Airplane

Year built

2020

Engines

1

Operator

Not recorded

Operating rule

Part 91: General Aviation

Purpose of flight

Personal

Phase of flight

Not recorded

Route

West Palm Beach → Key West

Aircraft damage

Destroyed

Weather

VMC

Light

Day

NTSB number

ERA22LA142

2 people died.

The pilot’s inadequate preflight and in-flight weather planning and his improper decision to continue visual flight rules flight into an area of limited visibility in moderate precipitation, which resulted in a loss of airplane control due to spatial disorientation.

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

Read the full NTSB narrative

The sport pilot did not obtain a weather briefing before departing on a day visual flight rules cross-country flight over open water to an island airport along with a friend, who was flying a second airplane. The pilot of the second airplane reported that he had to descend from 6,500 ft mean sea level (msl) to 1,500 ft msl to remain below a broken cloud layer, diverted, and encouraged the accident pilot via radio several times to do the same. However, the accident pilot stated that he was descending from 6,500 ft msl to 4,500 ft msl and continuing to the original planned destination. No further communications were received from the accident pilot. Automatic dependent surveillance-broadcast (ADS-B) data revealed that the airplane was in the vicinity of moderate precipitation, which had been forecast, when it entered a descending right spiral before the flight track ended. Only the airplane’s vertical stabilizer and the right portion of the horizontal stabilizer were recovered after the accident. The pilot received his sport pilot certificate about one month before the accident. At that time, he reported a total flight experience of 88 hours; of which, 24 hours were as pilot-in-command and 0 hours were instrument experience. Given the pilot’s limited overall experience and lack of instrument flight experience, it is likely that the pilot experienced spatial disorientation and lost control of the airplane after encountering limited visibility conditions in the moderate precipitation while flying over open water.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record.