Vertigo Air Taxi Piper PA-32-300 accident

The pilot departed with four passengers and cargo on the air taxi flight up a valley toward an area of rising terrain. The pilot reported that, during the six-minute flight, the airplane's rate of climb was 500 feet per minute and the engine power setting was 2,500 rpm with 25 inches of manifold pressure. Upon realizing that the airplane would not clear the terrain ahead, the pilot maneuvered the airplane to the right side of the confined valley in order to make a 180° left turn; however, the airplane subsequently stopped climbing and impacted terrain. The departure airport elevation was 55 ft mean sea level (msl) and the elevation of the accident site was 750 ft msl. Postaccident examination of the airframe and engine revealed no evidence of mechanical malfunctions or failures that would have precluded normal operation; the pilot reported there were no mechanical anomalies with the airplane. The pilot reported that the airplane’s gross weight at takeoff was about 50 lbs under its maximum gross weight and the investigation independently estimated that it was about 110 pounds below the maximum gross takeoff weight. A pilot in another airplane loaded similarly to the accident airplane departed about two minutes before the accident airplane on the same route of flight and reported that the weather was “great” and that he had no performance issues climbing through the mountain pass. Based on the available information, the pilot failed to maintain clearance from rising terrain. It is likely that his delayed decision to turn away from the rising terrain when he realized that the airplane’s climb performance was insufficient contributed to the impact with terrain.

Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset