Provo Municipal Airport
Aircraft Accident/Incident Report

Provo, Utah 84601
Thursday, June 8, 2006 23:45 MDT

After reporting the airport in sight and canceling an IFR flight plan, the pilot was executing a visual approach to an airport located on the shore of a lake during dark night visual meteorological conditions. The final approach path was over the lake. About 50 seconds before the accident occurred, the airplane was aligned for landing on runway 13 and was approximately 1.5 miles from the threshold, about 750 feet agl, at an indicated airspeed of 210 knots, and a descent rate of 1,900 feet per minute (fpm). Twelve seconds later, the airplane began a right turn. The airplane continued to turn right until it impacted the water on a heading of about 332 degrees, at an indicated airspeed of 123 knots, and a descent rate of 1,300 fpm. Examination of the wreckage confirmed that the airplane impacted the water in a right wing low attitude. No evidence of any mechanical discrepancies was found. Scattered very heavy and intense thunderstorms were located north through east of the accident location. No convective showers or thunderstorms were in the vicinity of the airplane when it crashed. Several cloud layers were present over the destination airport around the accident time. The amount and layers of low cloudiness make it unlikely that the pilot was able to maintain visual contact with the airport during his approach to the field. At the time the airplane turned right off the final approach course, it was at approximately the altitude of the lowest cloud layer. The pilot had completed a familiarization course in the airplane the day before the accident. The course consisted of about 30 hours of ground instruction and 18 hours of flight instruction. The course flight time was the pilot's total flight experience in this make and model of airplane. The instructor who provided the training reported that during the course he twice discussed with the pilot a list of pilot limitations to be adhered to following course completion. These limitations included no flights in IMC until the pilot had a minimum of 100 hours in make and model and no night flights until the pilot had a minimum of 50 hours in make and model.

The pilot's failure to maintain altitude/clearance during a VFR approach, which resulted in an in-flight collision with water. Contributing factors were the dark night light conditions and the low clouds.