DEN00LA170

The pilot filed an IFR flight plan, and was flying direct from Pierre, South Dakota, to Red Lodge, Montana. North of Newcastle, Wyoming, he cancelled his IFR flight plan and received VFR flight following as he started toward the Big Horn Mountains. He turned up a valley and soon realized the terrain was rising faster than the airplane could climb. Terrain proximity precluded him from turning around, so he elected to land in a meadow. Although the pilot escaped injury, his passenger sustained a compression fracture of a lumbar vertebra, and the airplane was substantially damaged when both wings and fuselage buckled.

On September 15, 2000, approximately 1610 mountain daylight time, a Piper PA-28-181, N6130H, registered to Donald A. Faybrick et al., and operated by the pilot, was substantially damaged when it collided with terrain while maneuvering about 20 miles west of Sheridan, Wyoming. The private pilot was not injured, but his passenger sustained a serious injury. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed, and an IFR flight plan had been filed for the personal cross-country flight being conducted under Title 14 CFR Part 91. The flight originated at Pierre, South Dakota, approximately 1330 central daylight time.

The pilot said he had filed an IFR flight plan, and was flying direct from Pierre, South Dakota, to Red Lodge, Montana, at 6,500 feet msl (above mean sea level). North of Newcastle, Wyoming, he cancelled his IFR flight plan and received VFR flight following as he started toward the Big Horn Mountains. He turned up a valley and soon realized the terrain was rising faster than the airplane could climb. Terrain proximity precluded him from turning around, so he elected to land in a meadow. Although the pilot escaped injury, his passenger sustained a compression fracture of a lumbar vertebra, and the airplane was substantially damaged when both wings and fuselage buckled.