Pilot became disoriented and confused during flight that killed 8 off NC, officials say
A pilot’s “inadequate planning” and “distraction” led to a plane crash that killed eight people off the coast of North Carolina in 2022, officials said.
The National Transportation Safety Board attributed the defining event of the crash to “loss of control in flight” in a report published Jan. 30. The assessment details how the pilot became confused trying to program the flight management system as the plane stalled, leading the aircraft to plummet more than 4,700 feet into the ocean.
Six passengers were preparing to fly from Engelhard on Feb. 13, 2022, when the pilot and a student pilot were trying to figure out how to enter a flight plan into the plane’s system, officials said.
“We’ll get to it later,” the 67-year-old pilot told his son, the 28-year-old student pilot seated next to him, McClatchy News reported.
The single-engine plane took off, bound for Beaufort, without a flight plan, officials said in the report.
As they got into the air, the pilot continued trying to program a flight plan, and “generally expressed frustration and confusion” as he was trying to get it work, officials said in the report.
“I don’t know what I need to do,” he said, according to the voice recorder recovered by officials.
During this time, the aircraft entered restricted airspace and the pilot continued to “fixate” on programming the flight plan.
“I’ve got to get my iPad out ... This is not good this way — I’m way behind the eight ball,” the pilot said, according to the log. “I hate it when that happens.”
He didn’t notice the plane’s nose tilted up by 10 degrees and the airspeed “decayed,” officials said. This caused autopilot to disengage and the stall warning to sound.
The plane continued to climb with the nose at a 31 degree angle, turning left and right, investigators said.
“We’re sideways,” the student pilot told his father, as the engine increased to almost full power, officials said.
After a rapid climb, the plane rolled to the right and began to dive 50 degrees nose down, according to the report. Warnings sounded from the stall alert, sink rate alert and terrain avoidance system — instructing the pilot to pull up over the course of about two minutes.
The plane crashed into the ocean three miles off the coast, officials said.
“The resulting sudden deactivation of the autopilot, combined with his inattention to the airplane’s flight attitude and speed, likely surprised the pilot,” officials wrote in the report. “Ultimately, the pilot failed to regain control of the airplane following the aerodynamic stall, likely due to spatial disorientation.”
Four high school students returning from a hunting trip in Hyde County were among those killed, McClatchy News reported.
The families of those who died in the crash settled a lawsuit for $15 million with “the companies that owned the plane and employed the pilot,” WNCT reported.
Beaufort is in Carteret County in the southern Outer Banks.
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