SEA01FA070

In a telephone call to the Seattle Automated Flight Service Station (AFSS) about 20 minutes before departure, the pilot asked for the current conditions for the departure and destination airports. Both airports were reporting marginal visual flight rules (VFR) conditions, with conditions worse at the destination. The ceilings at both locations were lower than forecast at the time of the call, and were forecast to lower during the planned flight. When offered terminal forecasts and other weather information by the briefer, the pilot declined. Shortly thereafter, the flight departed under VFR during dark night conditions; no flight plan was filed and no air traffic services were provided. While flying toward the destination at low altitude, the flight encountered an area of rapidly deteriorating weather including low ceilings, rain, and snow. The airplane subsequently struck a stand of trees, separating its left wing, and crashed. Post-accident examinations of the aircraft and engine did not reveal any evidence of pre-impact mechanical or structural defects with the aircraft or engine. The aircraft's emergency locator transmitter (ELT) did not activate in the crash; the flight was not reported missing for several hours and was not located until several hours after being reported missing. Investigators found the switch on the ELT, whose battery had been changed 2 months before the accident, in the OFF position in the wreckage. The ELT functioned as designed when checked with the switch in the ON and ARMED positions.

History of flight

On April 10, 2001, approximately 2112 Pacific daylight time, the pilot of a privately owned Cessna 182P airplane, N21565, contacted the Seattle, Washington, FAA Automated Flight Service Station (AFSS) and requested and received an abbreviated weather briefing for a flight from Felts Field, Spokane, Washington, to Pullman/Moscow Regional Airport, Pullman, Washington. During this contact, the pilot stated that he intended to depart Felts Field about 20 minutes after the call. About 2139 (1 hour and 39 minutes after the Felts Field air traffic control [ATC] tower closed for the evening), the approach control radar at Spokane International Airport recorded a radar return coming off Felts Field. This radar target tracked generally southeastbound (i.e., generally toward Pullman) until radar contact was lost with the target about 2150 approximately 18 nautical miles southeast of the Spokane approach control radar (located at Spokane International Airport), in the vicinity of Fairfield, Washington. The FAA reported that there was no ATC radio contact with the aircraft generating this radar return. The following day, concerned individuals reported the pilot as missing when he failed to arrive at work. A search for the aircraft was then initiated. The substantially damaged wreckage of N21565 was found later that day about 3 miles west of Fairfield, and the private pilot (who owned the aircraft) and one passenger were found fatally injured within the aircraft wreckage. At 2153, Felts Field reported marginal visual flight rules (MVFR) conditions (ceiling 1,800 feet broken, visibility 10 miles in light rain), and Pullman reported instrument flight rules (IFR) conditions (ceiling 700 feet overcast, visibility 4 miles in light snow and mist, ceiling variable from 500 feet to 1,100 feet). The FAA reported that no flight plan was filed for the accident flight. There was also no report of an emergency locator transmitter (ELT) activation.

Review of a re-recording of the Seattle AFSS Preflight 1 (PF1) briefer position communications disclosed that the pilot of N21565 contacted the briefer about 2112 and requested the current conditions for a flight from Spokane to Pullman. The briefer asked if the pilot was departing from Spokane International Airport, and the pilot replied that he was departing from Felts Field. The briefer asked if the pilot was leaving that evening, and the pilot replied in the affirmative, stating he was leaving in about 20 minutes. The briefer then told the pilot that Felts Field had issued a special meteorological observation at 9 minutes past the hour, indicating that light rain had started. The briefer gave Felts Field conditions as 2,000 feet scattered, ceiling 2,500 feet broken, 3,400 feet overcast, visibility 10 miles in light rain, wind calm, temperature 4 degrees, and dewpoint 1 degree. He gave Pullman conditions as light rain, marginal visual flight rules (MVFR), ceiling 1,400 feet broken, 2,000 feet overcast, and visibility 9 miles in light rain. He also advised that AIRMET meteorological advisories were in effect for mountain obscuration and icing, with freezing level from the surface to 4,000 feet. The briefer then asked if the pilot needed terminal forecasts or other weather information. The pilot replied that he did not, that he would check the Automatic Terminal Information Service (ATIS) at Felts Field and then decide. The briefer then advised the pilot as to how to obtain weather information inflight if needed, and solicited pilot reports (PIREPs). The call then ended.

According to the Spokane approach control radar data, the altitude of the radar return originating from Felts Field (elevation 1,953 feet) never exceeded 3,400 feet above sea level. The target began a descent from 3,400 feet at 2148:36, descending to its last recorded altitude of 3,000 feet at 2150:31. A plot of the last radar return (at 2150:31) on a Seattle sectional aeronautical chart disclosed terrain elevation in the area of the last recorded radar return as approximately 2,500 feet above sea level. The accident site was located about 2 nautical miles south of the last recorded radar position.

The last radar return was recorded during the hours of darkness. The crash site was located at approximately 47 degrees 23.2 minutes North latitude and 117 degrees 14.4 minutes West longitude.

Personnel information

The pilot held a private pilot certificate with an airplane single-engine land rating, issued on May 8, 1998. He also held a third-class medical certificate dated July 6, 2000, which carried a restriction requiring the pilot to wear corrective lenses for near and distant vision. The pilot did not hold an instrument rating.

The pilot's logbook was recovered from the aircraft wreckage during the on-site examination. Review of this logbook disclosed that the pilot's first flight was on May 2, 1997. The pilot logged an "FAA check ride" on April 30, 1998, and, following four flights totaling 4.1 hours and an instructor endorsement dated May 6, 1998, stating that the instructor had given the pilot "additional flight and ground instruction", and logged a second "FAA check ride" on May 8, 1998. During the four flights in between the two FAA check rides, the logged flight events included navigation, stalls, takeoffs and landings, soft and short field takeoffs and/or landings, instrument flight, and VOR orientation. The pilot received an instructor endorsement for high-performance airplanes on May 16, 1998.

According to the pilot's logbook, the pilot last completed a flight review on May 29, 2000, although the instructor endorsement for this flight referenced 14 CFR 61.107(a) rather than 14 CFR 61.56, the governing regulation for flight reviews. The pilot's logbook did not contain any entries after this flight review. An additional log was found in the aircraft wreckage that indicated the accident aircraft had been operated frequently since the May 29, 2000, flight review. The three most recent flights in this log prior to the accident flight were logged on March 5, 6, and 7 (year not recorded; a partial entry for April 10, indicating only a starting tachometer time, was entered immediately after the March 7 entry). This log recorded dates, starting and ending tachometer times for each flight, airports of operation, and the annotation "night" for some flights (including the three most recent flights), but did not indicate who flew the aircraft on each flight.

According to the pilot's logbook, as of the last entry (May 29, 2000), the pilot's total time was 333.6 hours including 267.6 hours pilot-in-command (PIC), 11.9 hours of night time, and 190.1 hours total/178.9 hours PIC in the Cessna 182.

Aircraft information

The aircraft received its last annual inspection signoff on February 19, 2001, about 2 months before the accident. The aircraft logbook indicated that the ELT battery had been changed during this inspection.

Meteorological information

The surface synopsis in the San Francisco, California, Area Forecast issued April 10, 2001 at 1945, indicated that at 2000, a cold front existed along a line from Havre, Montana, to Malad City, Idaho, to Seattle, Washington. The forecast for Washington east of the Cascade Mountains was for scattered to broken clouds at 3,000 feet, overcast clouds at 5,000 feet, and cloud tops at flight level (FL) 220, with scattered visibilities of 3 to 5 statute miles in light rain showers. AIRMET Zulu for ice and freezing level, issued on April 10, 2001 at 1845 and valid until 0100 on April 11, 2001, advised of occasional moderate rime and mixed icing in clouds and in precipitation between 6,000 feet and 16,000 feet, with conditions continuing beyond 0100 on April 11. The freezing level from the Cascades eastward was forecast to be from the surface to 4,000 feet.

An amended Terminal Aerodrome Forecast (TAF) for Felts Field (elevation 1