20020811028459A

(-23) Cap aircraft CE-182 avionics pkg included: storm scope, de homing, GPS, loran, transponder, mountain training: exercise took off from downtown island airport dkx crashed on cross mountain in anderson county 3 miles west of lake city, TN 3 persons on board a/c all perished when a/c impacted with mountain. ELT did activate and lat. Lon was used to find a/c, could not be seen from air heavy wooded area, no fire. (.19) on August 10, 2002, at an undetermined time, a Cessna 182R, N9307X, registered to the civil air patrol (cap), operating as a 14 CFR part 91 training flight, crashed on cross mountain, located about 2 1/2 miles northwestof lake city, Tennessee. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed and an internal cap flight plan and a computer weather briefing were obtained. The airplane was destroyed. The airline transport pilot-in-command, airline transport rated certified flight instructor (CFI), and commercial rated pilot passenger were fatally injured. The flight originated from jacksboro campbell county airport, jacksboro, Tennessee, at an undetermined time. Civil air patrol ground search team located the wreckage on August 11, 2002. The gr oup commander for the group 1 civil air patrol located at knoxville downtown island airport (dkx), knoxville, Tennessee stated the three deceased crewmembers attended a mountain flying clinic on the morning of the accident. The pilots were then scheduled to conduct mountain training with a cap instructor pilot/check pilot. The three pilots departed dkx between 1315 to 1330. The group commander overheard the CFI tell the other pilots receiving instruction that the commercial pilot passenger would be the first pilot to fly and they would land and switch seats at another airport. The pilots departed and were expected to return at about 1600 indicated on the cap form 104 mission flight plan/briefing form completed for the training flight. The crew indicated that they would be flying in search area a conducting mountain flying, which includes lake city, Tennessee, and cross mountain. The group commander stated he planned on using the airplane for another mission. When it did not return at the prescribed time listed on cap form 104, he instructed other cap personnel to call local airports in an attempt to locate the airplane which was unsuccessful. He called nashville automated flight service station and asked if they had any contact with the airplane and they stated no. he then called mcghee tyson control tower and asked if they would ask any high altitude airplane if they were receiving an emergency locator transmitter (ELT) signal. A short time later the control tower called and stated an airplane was receiving an ELT signal. The group commander started getting cap airplanes ready for launch to look for the missing airplane. Nashville automated flight service station called after 1800 and stated that the air force rescue coordination center had an ELT signal off the volunteer VOR 325-degree radial at 27 DME. Cap search and rescue airplanes and ground teams were deployed. A cap ground search team located the wreckage at 0330 on August 11, 2002. A witness stated he and a friend were on cross mountain scouting for deer when an airplane flew over their location at a very low altitude just above the trees. The airplane flew into the valley and made about 5 to 6 steep turns to the left estimated at about a 40 to 45-degree angle of bank. The airplane was so low that he could see the people in the airplane waving at them. The airplane flew back over their location at about 1620, flew back into the valley, and was observed to make another steep turn to the left before the airplane disappeared from view. They heard the engine go wide open and then heard a sound a few seconds later like trees popping. He asked his friend if he thought the airplane had crashed and they decided it did not crash. They came off the mountain later that evening and heard the airplane had crashed. On August 11, 2002, a member of cap group 1 contacted personnel at the jacksboro airport located at jacksboro, Tennessee. Personnel at the jacksboro airport stated the accident airplane landed at their location on the day of the accident between 1330 and 1345. The crew informed him that they were conducting mountain training in the local area and departed at an undetermined time.