Early Analysis: N7022G – Cessna 340 Crash October 11, 2021 Santee San Diego, CA

let's review the tragic accident of a cessna 340 in the san diego california area earlier this week the pilot was killed a person was killed on the ground and two people were seriously injured this accident has gotten a lot of attention so we thought we'd help you understand what's known about the accident at this stage and where the investigators are likely to look just a quick summary of the accident itself a cessna 340 flown by a single pilot from yuma arizona to montgomery field san diego during the decent phase of the flight the pilot is cleared for runway 2-8 right approaching the montgomery field circle to land runway 2-3 during that approach he's vectored off because he never intercepts the localizer and in that vector back around for a second attempt the pilot loses control and crashes into a nearby neighborhood here two golf turn left heading two one zero doesn't maintain three thousand eight hundred please let me attack you one two three near two two golfing right heading two five zero joints finally maintain 2 800 until established on the localizer clear to ils runway 28 right for the land runway two three uh clear for that let's do it right uh foot all right two three two one yesterday maintained two thousand eight hundred and twelve established on the localizer they are restricted above you caution make sure you're not even tracking the localizer i need you to fly it's actually cancel approach clearance climb and maintain three thousand two two goals please thought three thousand low altitude alert minimum vector announcement junior area of two thousand eight hundred seventy two two volts there two two golf climber maintained three thousand 3 800. please donate 2-2 golf turn right heading zero nine or zero three vectors to final three levels there two two golf turn right hitting zero nine or zero climb immediately maintain four thousand thousand let me just do this okay it looks like you're descending sir i need to make sure you are climbing not descending off say altitude collect 500 physical they're two two golf low altitude alert climb immediately climb the airplane maintain five thousand expedite climb climb the airplane please the two two golf just level out the plane or the heading and climb the airplane up to 5000 when you cancer 10 o'clock and a half mile 1 500. you appear to be defending against sir are you say seven altitude two two golf circle approach so let's take a look at the factors that the investigators will look at as they try to determine the cause of this accident starting with the pilot the pilot was highly experienced in this airplane this was his airplane that he had over a thousand hours in commercial ifr rated flying on a class one medical he lived in the san diego area but commuted to work in yuma and he bought this airplane in part to help with the commute back and forth from yuna to his home in san diego he'd flown the airplane and appears about 19 times since september first and flown this exact route five times and flown the other direction five other times so he's very familiar with the airplane very very familiar with the route and it appears he was proficient the cessna 340 is a capable airplane made for this kind of flying and this kind of commuting that the pilot was using it for the fuel systems can be tricky the tip tanks are the main tanks on a cessna 340 auxiliary tanks are inboard of the tip tanks and managing the fuel between the auxiliary and the tip tanks and how that's burned is important and can affect the handling characteristics of the airplane the ntsb will certainly take a look at fuel management as best they can given the destructive nature of the crash that will be difficult for them to do avionics-wise it was upgraded with garmin avionics to include a garmin gfc 600 autopilot the pilot was known to take meticulous care of his airplane and spared very little expense in the upgrades to both the engine the avionics and the interior conditions for the flight in route weather at cruz the winds were out of the northwest and pretty strong 40 knots or more based on flightaware tracking we can see some erratic airspeed control that crews which likely indicates the pilot was experiencing some turbulence at cruz and on the vfr chart about 30 miles northeast of the accident site there's a caution for pilots to be aware of the potential for severe turbulence in the area based on the winds in the changing direction of the winds both at altitude and in the descent it's very likely the pilot was experiencing at least moderate turbulence and experiencing some challenges maintaining course with wind direction that was requiring him to constantly update his heading this was likely quite disorienting during the descent for the pilot atc advises him of his approach plan about 24 minutes prior to his descent november 7th uh checking in 100 000 information at the airport processor seven zero two two golf scale perch vectors ios joined to the right at montgomery and extractor only two three so let's play around with two three uh vectors for our list for uh he's told to expect an ils to runway two eight right at montgomery field circle to land runway two three a circling approach is certainly more demanding than just a normal approach this circling approach was only involved about a 50-degree offset from runway 2-8 to offset to land runway 2-3 in essence he would fly on ils approach to runway 2-8 and then break off and report a left base in land runway 2-3 this circling approach seems to be a real key to understanding the cause in this accident the pilot never seems to fully grasp the ground track that he'll be flying for this approach and his situational awareness begins to erode rapidly once starting his descent the pilot is given five altitude step downs and three heading changes within about a five minute time span manageable but certainly things are starting to increase the pilot's communications with air traffic control his tone of voice and his pace seem normal until the latter stages of the descent [Music] as he's descending in to intercept the localizer to runway two eight right he never does intercept the localizer and requests to transition to runway 2-3 during this phase he's very likely popping in and out of broken clouds with bright sunlight going to dark clouds and again remember there's very likely turbulence throughout this so all of this can be disorienting turbulence among in and out of vmc to imc conditions is much more difficult than just being in straight imc or straight vmc he doesn't intercept the 2-8 localizer and begins to show signs of being a little bit flustered he requests to transition to runway 2-3 atc denies that and advises him that they're going to vector him back around and attempt another approach so in essence atc can tell that the approach is somewhat erratic they're going to vector him back around to intercept the ils to 280 again and try the whole procedure again but during this vectoring is when things really begin to erode the pilot's airspeed control is erratic changing by upwards of 60 knots or more his altitude control is also erratic changing by 600 feet or more during a short time span in that continuous right-hand turn approach advises the pilot multiple times to climb they're worried about him heading towards the mountains to his north in that right hand turn the pilot acknowledges these and at one point indicates that he thinks he is climbing when in fact he never is he continues the turn breaks through the bottom of the clouds and when we see him on cameras he's in about 80 degrees of bank and impacts the ground about 50 degrees nose low the latter stages of this both the pilot thinking that he's climbing when he's not atc constantly urging him to climb and a high airspeed high angle of a bank are what seemed to indicate a loss of control by the pilot and potential for spatial disorientation so based on that recap let's take a look at where the investigators are likely to focus in this case they'll look at the pilot's experience level and they'll look specifically at his experience in imc conditions while he had a lot of time flying this airplane in this region of the country in this region of the country weather is typically clear so how much actual imc time did the pilot have and whether or not that lack of experience could have contributed to spatial disorientation is certainly a place the ntsb will look they'll also look at systems failures including avionics a failure in avionics can cause severe disorientation in pilots especially if it's a partial failure or if it fails without warning the ntsb will also look to determine if both engines were operating fully throughout the flight in a light twin engine if one engine is not fully operational it can impact the handling characteristics of an airplane especially in the final phases phases of flight during an approach which can make it challenging to control even though this impact was severe the ntsb will likely be able to determine if both engines were operating and whether or not that impacted control of the airplane the ntsb will also look to affirm airframe integrity because of the metars in the area the forecast for turbulence during a descent it's possible that severe turbulence can impact the flight controls of an airplane and potentially even cause a departure of some kind of flight control or another the ntsb will try to determine this to see if that was potentially a cause of why the pilot lost control of the airplane if there was any damage done to the airframe itself when the final ntsb analysis of this accident is complete we'll update you in the meantime follow us for more accident analysis and safety education that will help make you a safer pilot you

Channel: Air Safety Institute

Views: 240,198

Keywords: institute, aopa, aviation, pilot, fly, flying, flight, plane, airplane, airport, air, safety, asi, air safety, training, aircraft, owners, pilots, accident, analysis, crash, mishap, fatal, investigation, ntsb, faa, n7022g, twin, multi, multiengine

Id: 3FHdC1_Jxc0

Length: 12min 6sec (726 seconds)

Published: Thu Oct 14 2021