ERA20FA002 · Piper PA28 180

The private pilot and a student pilot passenger were returning to their home airport in dark night visual meteorological conditions. The pilot reported on the airport’s common traffic advisory frequency that he intended to overfly the runway from west to east and turn left onto the downwind leg of the airport traffic pattern for a landing to the southwest. Instead, the airplane turned right after crossing the airport and proceeded south. Radar data revealed that the airplane completed a right 360° turn about 2 miles south of the airport, where witnesses saw the airplane circling over a local high school football game. Witnesses reported that the airplane then entered a steep, nose-down descent and the engine continued to run at high speed during the descent. The last radar target was over the area of the accident site. The accident site was located in a rural, wooded area, and fragmentation of the wreckage at the site was consistent with a high-energy impact. Examination of the airframe and engine did not reveal evidence of a preimpact mechanical malfunction or anomaly.

Another pilot, who flew the accident airplane earlier on the day of the accident, reported that the vacuum pump was inoperative and that the vacuum instruments were unreliable and would drift during flight. Due to extensive impact damage to the flight instruments and vacuum system, the condition of the flight instruments and whether they may have contributed to the accident could not be determined. An unidentified instrument gyro exhibited signs of rotation at impact.

The pilot, who owned the airplane, did not have a current flight review, and his most recent night flight experience was recorded over 10 years before the accident. The dark night conditions present at the time of the accident and the pilot’s lack of recent night flying experience were conducive to the development of spatial disorientation, and the airplane’s high-speed impact was consistent with the known effects of spatial disorientation.

Toxicology testing of the pilot revealed the primary psychoactive metabolite of marijuana only in liver tissue and its inactive metabolite in liver and kidney tissue samples. While tissue analysis cannot be used to determine recent usage and possible effects, the concentrations suggested that the pilot was not a chronic user; the distribution of metabolites also suggested that his marijuana use was not very recent. Given the known circumstances of the accident, it is unlikely that the pilot’s use of marijuana contributed to the accident. Toxicology also identified the presence of ethanol in tissue samples from both the pilot and passenger; however, it is likely that some or all of the identified ethanol was the result of postmortem production.

Based on the available information, it is likely that, while maneuvering over sparsely populated terrain in dark night conditions, the pilot experienced spatial disorientation, which resulted in a subsequent loss of airplane control.

Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset