Early Analysis: Piper Lance Black Hole Departure April 5, 2023 Venice, FL

the NTSB released its preliminary report on the piper Lance that crashed off the coast of Venice Florida and that preliminary report offers us a chance to take a look at what's called black hole departures so this is an early analysis to look at the Venice accident in most early analysis we're out within a few days of the accident and this one we waited for the preliminary so that we could give you more information so let's review the accident the piper Lance was returning to St Petersburg Florida with four people aboard it departed Runway 2-3 on a dark night however it was a full Moon the Moon was about 25 degrees or so high off the Horizon at a bearing of about 110 degrees so that would have been off the Pilot's left shoulder as the pilot departed Runway 2-3 the pilot departed Runway 2-3 with three other people on board climbed to about 300 feet and then began a right-hand turn and continued that right-hand turn decelerating or accelerating with a descent into the Gulf of Mexico and crashed all four people aboard parished so let's look at the potential causes of the accident starting with the way we always break accidents down the first thing let's look at the equipment the piper Lance is there anything we can tell about the airplane that may have been a factor in the accident the ntsb's preliminary report indicates that it doesn't appear as if there's a problem with either the engine the airframe or the avionics that are a likely cause of the accident now again you have to wait until the full investigation is done to know for sure but the NTSB kind of went out of its way in the report to say that they didn't see any evidence that there was any problem with the airframe the engine or the avionics that could have led to the crash they do all kinds of testing including making sure the vacuum pumps as best they could tell were working that power the attitude indicator so it seems like the equipment of the airplane was is not likely a factor the second thing let's look at the pilot the pilot was rated about a 1200 hour pilot commercial pilot with an IFR rating so the pilot seemed qualified and rated for the flight that occurred the final thing we can look at are the conditions and it seems like once again conditions will play a very likely role in this accident so this accident took off of at Venice Airport off of Runway 2-3 and off of Runway 2-3 is into the Gulf of Mexico on a dark night that's what's called a black hole departure now typically the thing that's a little bit unusual about this accident is it was a full moon typically a full moon will have enough visibility so that the pilot has some visual Acuity taking off into that kind of a dark hole takeoff the pilot took off into over the Gulf of Mexico and now according to the NTSB report there was no discernible Horizon over the Gulf of Mexico on that departure so now what's happening the pilot is taken off lost visual Acuity and now is in basically a pitch black dark hole with no discernible Horizon that kind of black hole departure has been a problem before not just in Venice but it can be a problem anywhere where you're taking off over the water over dark desert terrain really over anywhere where there's no good visual Acuity where there's no good visual landmarks so you're taking off and you lose all kind of depth perception in any kind of visual indications of your of your flight parameters so in this case the pilot would have been thinking he was taking off VFR what can happen under a kind of black hole departure like that is something called a somatographic effect in other words what happens is whenever we accelerate the action going on inside the brain is very much as if we tilted our head back and a natural reaction to you tilting your head back or having your head tilted back would be to tilt it back forward as Pilots That's what can happen to us when we accelerate on takeoff when we're accelerating seeing seeing indicators like Runway lights going by us and we have this sense that we're accelerating it can feel like we're pitching up so our reaction if we don't catch ourselves on an instrument is to push down and oftentimes it also involves a turn and so that's why it seems that this accident is likely a spatial disorientation accident due to some autographic effect of acceleration where a pilot goes into a black hole where now he's lost all visual indications of his flight path and now has that sense that he's accelerating or pitching up and the reaction is to push down that kind of spatial disorientation is a classic type of spatial disorientation that can happen so what are the lessons learned from this one is that even if it turns out that this was not a factor even if the NTSB finds it was something completely different the accident helps us reminds us of the difficulty of a black hole departure again out into water out into dark desert not just dark but into white anywhere where you're losing visual Acuity and depth perception then you can you can succumb to this kind of spatial disorientation the the only way to prevent it is to know that this is occurring and be ready to transition to instruments quickly what can happen is you think you're on a VFR takeoff you begin getting these kinds of Illusions and you don't transition to instruments quick enough you're not prepared for it so on a black hole type departure think of it as like your your IFR or your IMC because in effect you are you have no really visual Acuity or no really visual signs to help you with your spatial orientation so be ready to transition to instruments rapidly and consider it like a a IFR departure and try to stay straight and level on your climb out as long as possible at least up to about a thousand feet or so before you begin a turn in your fully transitioned onto instruments and finally just a reminder that there are other things that could be a factor we could find that maybe there was some kind of airframe damage that they weren't able to pick out on the preliminary maybe there was something wrong with the avionics it doesn't seem likely at this stage of the game but it's still a potential thanks for watching

Channel: Air Safety Institute

Views: 107,705

Keywords: institute, aopa, aviation, pilot, fly, flying, flight, plane, airplane, airport, air, safety, asi, air safety, training, aircraft, owners, pilots, Collision Avoidance, Takeoffs and Landings

Id: 5_Q1GHMXEJg

Length: 7min 9sec (429 seconds)

Published: Wed May 03 2023