Individually Owned: 150,657
Corporate Owned: 137,281
Raleigh-Durham Intl. Airport
Aircraft Accident/Incident Report
Raleigh, North Carolina 27623
Monday, July 31, 2000 EDT
NTSB Narrative Summary Released at Completion of Accident
The flight had proceeded without incident until a visual approach was made to the destination airport, but a landing was not completed because of poor visibility due to ground fog. The pilot then requested vectors to another airport, and was advised by ATC that he was below radar coverage, and he could not be radar identified. The pilot stated he would proceed to a third airport; he was given a heading, instructed to proceed direct to the airport, and report the field in sight. He was told to over-fly the airport, and might be able to descend through a clearing in the clouds. An inbound air carrier flight reported instrument meteorological conditions on the final approach to a parallel runway. At a location of 1.13 miles east of the airport, the flight, for no apparent reason, turned south, away from the airport. The last radio contact with pilot was after ATC told him his heading was taking him away from the airport and he said he was turning back. The last known position of N201RH was 1.95 miles southeast of the airport, at 500 feet MSL. According to the statement of the passenger that was sitting in the co-pilot's seat, "...all we could see were city lights and darkness underneath us. We were in a right turn, when I saw the trees and subsequently hit it." According to the pilot's log book and FAA records revealed a limitation on his commercial pilot certificate prohibited him from carrying passengers for hire at night and on cross-country flights of more than 50 nautical miles. The records did not show any instrument rating. As per the entries in his personal flight logbook, he had accumulated a total of 1,725.2 total flight hours, 1,550.9 total single engine flight hours, and 184.3 total flight hours in multi-engine aircraft of which 145.6 hours were in this make and model airplane. In addition, the logbooks showed that he had a total of 487.3 cross country flight hours, 61.9 total night flight hours, and 21.6 simulated instrument flight hours.
NTSB Probable Cause Narrative
the pilot's continued VFR flight into IMC conditions, by failing to maintain altitude, and descending from VFR conditions into IMC, which resulted in him subsequently impacting with trees. Factors in this accident were: reduced visibility due to dark night and fog. An additional factor was the pilot was not certified for instrument flight.
Event Information
| Type of Event | Accident |
| Event Date | 7/31/2000 |
| Event Day of the Week | Monday |
| Time of Event | 34 |
| Event Time Zone | Eastern Daylight Time |
| Event City | RALEIGH |
| Event State | NORTH CAROLINA |
| Event Country | -- |
| Zipcode of the event site | 27623 |
| Event Date Year | 2000 |
| Event Date Month | 7 |
| MidAir Collision Indicator | No |
| On Ground Collision occurred ? | No |
| Event Location Latitude | 355059N |
| Event Location Longitude | 0784504W |
| Event Location Airport | Raleigh-Durham Intl. |
| Event Location Nearest Airport ID | RDU |
| Indicates whether the acc/inc occurred off or on an airport | Off Airport/Airstrip |
| Distance from airport in statute miles | 2 |
| Degrees magnetic from airport | 206 |
| Airport Elevation | 435 |
| Weather Briefing Completeness | Unknown |
| Investigator's weather source | Weather Observation Facility |
| Time of the weather observation | 33 Eastern Daylight Time |
| Direction of event from weather observation facility (degrees) | 330 |
| Weather Observation Facility ID | RDU |
| Elevation of weather observation facility | 435 |
| Distance of event from weather observation facility (units?) | 2 |
| Time Zone of the weather observation | EDT |
| Lighting Conditions | Night/Dark |
| Lowest Ceiling Height | 500 |
| Lowest Non-Ceiling Height | -- |
| Sky/Lowest/Cloud Conditions | Clear |
| Sky Condition for Lowest Ceiling | Broken |
| Visibility Runway Visual Range (Feet) | 0 |
| Visibility Runway Visual Value (Statute Miles) | 0 |
| Visibility (Statute Miles) | 6 |
| Air Temperature at event time (in degrees celsius) | 23 |
| Dew Point at event time (in degress fahrenheit) | 23 |
| Wind Direction (degrees magnetic) | 140 |
| Variable Wind Indicator | Wind direction could be determined |
| Wind Speed (knots) | 6 |
| Wind Velocity Indicator | -- |
| Wind Gust Indicator | Not Gusting |
| Wind Gust (knots) | -- |
| Altimeter Setting at event time (in. Hg) | 30 |
| Density Altitude (feet) | 1472 |
| Intensity of Precipitation | -- |
| METAR weather report | -- |
| Event Highest Injury | Fatal |
| On Ground, Fatal Injuries | 0 |
| On Ground, Minor Injuries | 0 |
| On Ground, Serious Injuries | 0 |
| Injury Total Fatal | 1 |
| Injury Total Minor | 1 |
| Injury Total None | -- |
| Injury Total Serious | 1 |
| Injury Total All | 3 |
| Investigating Agency | NTSB |
| NTSB Docket Number (internal use) | 11676 |
| NTSB Notification Source | FAA COM CNTR ATL |
| NTSB Notification Date | Jul 31 2000 12:00AM |
| NTSB Notification Time | 330 |
| Fiche Number and/or location -used to find docket information | DMS |
| Date of most recent change to record | May 21 2002 10:26AM |
| User who most recently changed record | NTSB\MONR |
| Basic weather conditions | Visual Meteorological Cond |
| FAA District Office | -- |
Aircraft Involved |
|
|---|---|
Aircraft #1 |
|
| Aircraft Registration Number | N201RH |
| NTSB Number | MIA00FA229 |
| Missing Aircraft Indicator | N |
| Federal Aviation Reg. Part | Part 91: General Aviation |
| Type of Flight Plan filed | VFR |
| Flight plan Was Activated? | Yes |
| Damage | Destroyed |
| Aircraft Fire | None |
| Aircraft Explosion | None |
| Aircraft Manufacturer's Full Name | de Havilland |
| Aircraft Model | DHC-6-200 |
| Aircraft Series Identifier | DHC-6-200 |
| Aircraft Serial Number | 163 |
| Certified Max Gross Weight | 11579 |
| Aircraft Category | Airplane |
| Aircraft Registration Class | U.S. Registered/U.S. Soil |
| Aircraft is a homebuilt? | No |
| Flight Crew Seats | -- |
| Cabin Crew Seats | -- |
| Passenger Seats | -- |
| Total number of seats on the aircraft | 2 |
| Number of Engines | 2 |
| Fixed gear or retractable gear | Fixed |
| Aircraft, Type of Last Inspection | AAIP |
| Date of Last Inspection | Jul 6 2000 12:00AM |
| Airframe hours since last inspection | 21.5 |
| Airframe Hours | 28711 |
| ELT Installed | Yes |
| ELT Activated | Yes |
| ELT Aided Location of Event Site | Yes |
| ELT Type | -- |
| Aircraft Owner Name | WIN WIN AVIATION INC. |
| Aircraft Owner Street Address | RT 30 WEST BOX |
| Aircraft Owner City | HINCKLEY |
| Aircraft Owner State | IL |
| Aircraft Owner Country | -- |
| Aircraft Owner Zipcode | 60520 |
| Operator is an individual? | No |
| Operator Name | -- |
| Operator Same as Owner? | Yes |
| Operator Is Doing Business As | -- |
| Operator Address Same as Owner? | Yes |
| Operator Street Address | -- |
| Operator City | -- |
| Operator State | -- |
| Operator Country | -- |
| Operator Zip code | -- |
| Operator Code | -- |
| Owner has at least one certificate | None |
| Other Operator of large aircraft? | -- |
| Certified for Part 133 or 137 Operation | -- |
| Operator Certificate Number | -- |
| Indicates whether an air carrier operation was scheduled or not | -- |
| Indicates Domestic or International Flight | -- |
| Operator carrying Pax/Cargo/Mail | -- |
| Type of Flying (Per_Bus / Primary) | Positioning |
| Second Pilot on Board | No |
| Departure Point Same as Event | No |
| Departure Airport Code | OC2 |
| Departure City | HINCKLEY |
| Departure State | IL |
| Departure Country | USA |
| Departure Time | 2000 |
| Departure Time Zone | CDT |
| Destination Same as Local Flt | -- |
| Destination Airport Code | LHZ |
| Destination City | LOUISBURG |
| Destination State | NC |
| Destination Country | USA |
| Specific Phase of Flight | Maneuvering |
| Report sent to ICAO? | -- |
| Evacuation occurred | No |
| Date of most recent change to record | Oct 10 2002 3:59PM |
| User who most recently changed record | dbo |
| Since inspection or accident | Time of Accident |
| Event Location Runway Number and Location | 23L |
| Runway Length | 7500 |
| Runway Width | 150 |
| Sight Seeing flight | No |
| Air Medical Flight | No |
| Medical Flight | -- |