AOPA’s Air Safety Institute Releases Accident Case Study: Night Falls on Final

The latest video, Night Falls on Final, recreates the tragic events that led an experienced aviator to become disoriented on an instrument approach into Raleigh-Durham International Airport at night on October 20, 2019.

The accident aircraft was N534Z, a 1989 Piper Saratoga, and its instrument-rated pilot filed an IFR flight plan for a 370-nautical-mile journey from Columbus, Georgia. He and his wife were headed to North Carolina for vacation. Weather in Raleigh was marginal VFR, and a stubborn layer of clouds lay close to the ground.

According to his logbook, the pilot had just under 3,000 hours of total flight time. But his last logged instrument approach had been almost 10 months earlier, and it had been almost a year since his last night flight. Therefore, he was not current to fly IFR or at night, nor was he authorized to carry passengers.

“Unless the pilot completed his required night currency before the accident flight and didn’t log it, he was not legal, current or proficient doing the type of flying he was confronted with that night,” ASI senior vice president Mike Ginter said. “It was a long flight from Columbus, and an unexpected runway change at his destination coupled with challenging weather conditions during the final phase of the flight created a very difficult situation for this pilot.”

N534Z crashed into the woods of a state park, just one mile short of runway 32 at Raleigh-Durham.

In its final report, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) determined that the accident was caused by the pilot’s “failure to maintain a safe glidepath during final approach to the runway.”

“Stress and fatigue are a dangerous combination that can easily lead to mistakes,” Ginter said. “Add to that the anxiety the pilot may have felt after having to change plans on the fly, reprogram his avionics, and try to get his bearings in less-than-ideal weather. The dark, featureless terrain before the brightly lit airport environment could have given him the illusion of being too high on approach, when really, he was too low.”

Accident Case Studies use Federal Aviation Administration records, NTSB documentation, and video animation to recreate the dynamics of each accident and track the chain of events. The videos share critical lessons to help pilots recognize and avoid similar mistakes.

Watch Night Falls on Final, which is sponsored by Sporty’s, here.