20091115052669A

Addition sheet FAA form 8020-23 block 33ACCIDENT number ERA10LA066 11/17/2009: overdue aircraft report, alert notice "alnot" received for N1723T expected to return to mal on 11/15/2009 after departing 5B2 at approximately 16:30 local. The aircraft owner/pilot who was a DPE was scheduled to conduct a flight test at saratoga airport (5B2) and had a commitment for 18:30 local in malone. A passenger on board possessed a student pilot certificate. No flight plan was filed and caller indicated that a direct GPS route would have most likely be flown. State police helicopter located wreckage on the south facing side of santanoni peak in the township of Newcomb, NY coordinates N44' 5.58 W74' 7.89 . A nys forest ranger was lowered into crash sight to verify status of pilot and passenger and confirmed there was no survivors. Nys police helicopter departed site for refuel and returned with nys police accident reconstruction officer who was lowered into site to begin on scene investigation and with the nys forest ranger recover bodies. A staging area was established at an abandoned airfield approximately 4 miles south east of crash site. Iic and operations inspector arrived at staging area approximately 13:00 local. Two state police helicopters were on scene one being used for victim recovery, second was made available for inspectors to review crash site. Two tox boxes were given to nys police investigator who delivered them to the pathologist conducting autopsies and adirondack medical center in saranac lake, NY. Inspectors observed crash site from helicopter, site is located in very steep terrain approximately 600 feet below the peak of a 4600 foot mountain. Site is covered in very thick cover of foliage and with no established trails to peak, access to site by ground route is impractical. It was decided that access to site by FAA inspectors was not advisable and would review the crash site photos and interview nys police investigator and ranger the next day. Upon return to staging area inspectors were informed by nys forest ranger personnel that a handheld GPS was recovered intact and operable, but the on scene ranger in possession had departed in second helicopter back to ray brook headquarters. Iic informed ranger and nys police management at staging area that we would expect to interview on scene ranger and trooper the next day at their headquarters. 11/18/2009 iic and ops inspector met with nys forest ranger and nys police accident reconstruction officer/investigator at nys police headquarters in ray brook, NY to review accident photos. Impact was at approximately the 3500 - 4000 foot level of a 4600 foot mountain. Broken trees show an estimated heading of approximately 360 degrees magnetic as estimated by forest ranger. Aircraft attitude was appeared to be straight and level however because of the extremely steep terrain and inspectors not at site this is could not be verified. Initial impact was into a rock ledge approximately four foot high which ran south west to north east along very steep terrain. Wreckage path was along this rock ledge. The nose cowling and propeller were found closest to impact site, leading edge damage and cord wise marks on back of propeller indicated rotation upon impact. Post crash fire consumed a majority of the cabin and fuselage. The remaining cabin floor with seat tracks and seat frames was still attached to the right wing and was approximately 100 feet from initial impact site in a semi inverted position. The engine, engine mount, fire wall, rudder pedals were located just below (south) of the cabin floor. The tail section was located next to the engine slightly south and was inverted. The left wing was next to, west, of the tail. The first body recovered, which was later identified as the aircraft owner, was located next to the engine and adjacent to the left rudder petals,(which were identified as left because this aircraft only has toe brakes on the left side) and left seat frame.