Aircraft Accident/Incident Report

Goldendale, Washington 98620
Wednesday, February 22, 2006 20:50 PST

Prior to departing on the first leg of the night cross-country cargo flight, the pilot obtained a weather briefing which included an AIRMET that indicated mountains could be obscured by clouds, and that precipitation, mist and fog might be encountered over the route of flight. The pilot filed a VFR flight plan with a cruise altitude of 6,500 feet, departing at 1950 Pacific standard time. As the flight progressed, radar data indicated the following: at 2036:09 the airplane was 20 nm north of the accident site proceeding south at an altitude of 6,400 feet; at 2046:17 the airplane was 1.16 nm from the accident site and continued to proceed south at an altitude of 6,300 feet; from 2046:17 to 2046:53, when the last encoded altitude was received, the airplane had descended from 6,300 feet to 5,500 feet on a southerly heading; radar contact was lost at 2048. The airplane impacted trees in mountainous terrain at an elevation of 5,099 feet. Search and rescue personnel who reached the accident site 5 hours after the accident, reported hard blowing snow, winds from the west at 30 miles per hours, and from 3 to 4 feet of fresh snow covering the area. One search and rescue volunteer, who resides 12 miles south of the accident site, at an elevation of 1,678 feet, revealed that between 2100 and 2200 on the evening of the accident, there was a light rain falling and that the temperature was 34 degrees F. A post-accident examination of the airplane revealed no evidence of any mechanical anomalies which would have prevented normal operation.

The pilot's failure to maintain terrain clearance during descent. Factors contributing to the accident were the high mountains, mountain obscuration, the dark night condition, and the pilot's improper in-flight planning/decision making.