N9796Y

HISTORY OF FLIGHT

On February 13, 2000, about 1245 eastern standard time, a Beech 35-P35, N9796Y, owned by a private individual impacted with rising terrain during the climb, and about 6 miles from the departure airport near Dayton, Tennessee. Instrument meteorological conditions prevailed at the time, and no flight plan was filed for the 14 CFR Part 91 personal flight. The airplane was destroyed. The private, non instrument-rated pilot was fatally injured. The flight had originated from the Dayton Airport, en route to Hicks Field, Fort Worth, Texas, at 1240.

At 1025, the pilot of N9796Y called the Air Traffic Control Specialist at the Nashville Automated Flight Service Station (AFSS), Nashville, Tennessee, for a weather briefing from Dayton, Tennessee, to the Fort Worth, Texas area, for a proposed flight that afternoon. According to AFSS specialist's statement, "...A detailed synopsis with emphasis on forecast thunderstorms and IFR conditions was given. There were AIRMETS (Airman's Meteorological Information) for IFR conditions along the route of flight until 1800 UTC (1400). I told the pilot that I did not expect conditions to improve at that time but would continue for another 24 to 36 hours."

At 1237, the pilot again called the Nashville AFSS, and the specialist said, "...(he) called for forecast information for the 'next couple of hours or so.' The flight would be from Dayton...to near the Dallas/Fort Worth area. VFR only. I proceeded to give current AIRMETS, conditions, and forecast information showing IFR conditions. (The) pilot asked about thunderstorms along the route. I gave the location and movement of thunderstorms and precipitation. Continued with tops information and forecast for continued IFR."

According to a witness at the airport just after the airplane took off from the runway it disappeared into the clouds. Another witness about 3 miles from the crash site said when she saw the airplane it was flying "low" as it came out of the clouds. She said the engine seemed to "sound normal," and the airplane was heading in a southwest direction. The witness said that at the time the weather was, "...overcast, foggy, misting rain."

According to local police records the airplane was found by a ground search at 1649, just off of Brayton Mountain Road, about 1/2 mile from the Deep Down Mine entrance.

The accident occurred during the hours of daylight about 35 degrees, 27 minutes north, and 085 degrees, 06 minutes west.

PERSONNEL INFORMATION

The pilot's personal logbook listing his flight hours was not recovered. Based on his last application for insurance, dated April 20, 1999, it was estimated that the pilot had about 1,207 hours of total flight time in all aircraft, and 36 hours in this make and model airplane, at the time of the application. In addition, at the time of the application the pilot listed 48 hours of night flight time.

METEOROLOGICAL INFORMATION

The weather at Chattanooga, Tennessee, about 40 miles south of the crash site at 1253 was reported as 900 feet overcast, visibility 1.5 miles, winds from 210 degrees, at 12 knots, temperature 50 degrees F, dew point 46 degrees F, and the altimeter setting was 30.01 inches of mercury.

A line person at the departure airport stated that after the airplane took off, he watched it disappear into the clouds and, "...the ceiling appeared to be about 600 to 900 feet high."

A police officer that had responded to the reported crash site at 1311, said, "due to the fog the visibility was approximately 20 to 30 feet."

MEDICAL AND PATHOLOGICAL INFORMATION

Dr. James D. Nelson stated that there was no autopsy performed on the pilot. On February 14, 2000, the Rhea County Medical Examiner's Office, Dayton, Tennessee, issued a death certificate, dated February 2, 2000, stating that the "...Cause of Death was massive multiple trauma..."

Toxicological tests were conducted at the Federal Aviation Administration, Research Laboratory, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, and revealed, "No ethanol or drugs detected in muscle."

COMMUNICATIONS

At 1020, the pilot of N9796Y called the Nashville AFSS, Preflight 2 (PF2) position and the following recorded conversation took place:

At 1025:09, the pilot said, "...need some forecast information...going to...d f w (Dallas/Fort Worth) sometime this evening v f r flight...." The PF2 specialist said, "...well that's not gonna happen...."

At 1026:01, the PF2 specialist said, "...and you said v f r only right." The pilot answered, "Yes sir."

The PF2 specialist gave the pilot the following weather information at 1026:05: "...highly improbable (VFR)...an unsettled frontal boundary extends westward to middle Georgia northern Alabama, Mississippi northwestward up into Missouri and Kansas and then it's back to the southwest through Oklahoma across the Texas panhandle north northwestward up through the Rockies...by this afternoon these systems are gonna still be kinda be in the same general vicinity...scattered thunderstorms and rain showers this morning and probably for the better part of the day as well we have an AIRMET in effect throughout Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas, Louisiana and eastern Texas for occasional i f r conditions and mist stratus and precipitation there's an AIRMET over the western half of Tennessee, Arkansas and eastern Oklahoma for low level wind shears and...Texas for occasional moderate turbulence below fifteen thousand feet...weather radar shows widespread areas of scattered mostly light rain and rain showers...a developing area of intense precipitation building over central Texas in general for today forecasted conditions enroute from the area forecast over eastern Tennessee, from now up until eighteen hundred zulu (1400) ceilings and visibility at or below a thousand and three in stratus and mist after eighteen hundred zulu becoming ceilings one thousand five hundred broken and scattered to widely scattered thunderstorms and rain showers down over the northern portions of Mississippi after eighteen hundred zulu ceilings fifteen hundred to twenty five hundred broken five thousand overcast occasional visibility three to five miles in numerous rain showers and thunderstorms a few possibly severe on into northern Louisiana...into northern Texas after fifteen hundred zulu (1100) it'll start to improve to three thousand scattered six thousand scattered twelve thousand broken after nineteen hundred zulu (1500) no significant clouds or weather so what are you gonna do...but over south central Texas and southern Texas you gonna have the big thunderstorms again...the question is what are you gonna do."

At 1030:34, the pilot said, "I'm probably going to wait." The PF2 specialist said, '...yeah cause I think you are gonna be pretty well stuck here."

At 1030:39, the pilot said, "...yeah see...right here...I'm in Dayton...and...it's all foggy." PF2 said, " You're not in the big blue hole huh." The pilot answered, "Nope like to think I was but it's not here yet." The PF2 told the pilot, "...I tell you what Knoxville and Chattanooga are down...just totally wiped out with fog this morning.

At 1031:00, the pilot said, "...yeah well it was earlier...I would have suspected that it was less than three to four hundred feet...from just looking outside...it's not windy it's just foggy."

The specialist told the pilot that the system would take about 24 to 36 hours to clear, and the phone call ended at 1032:13.

At 1237:51, the pilot of N9796Y called the Nashville AFSS a second time and was briefed by the Preflight 13 (PF13) specialist. He said, "...I need a little forecast information for maybe the next couple of hours...I'm...v f r I need to go v f r...."

At 1238:38, the PF13 specialist gave the pilot the following briefing, "...AIRMETS for IFR all the way to Texarkana and on down to the southeastern Texas...that's going to last I think IFR to Texas, Arkansas, Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama, improving over southern portion...between fifteen (1100) and eighteen (1400) and continuing beyond twenty one z (1700) through the rest of the day over northern portion...Chattanooga has got a whole mile and a half...Memphis is eight hundred...they're down to six hundred overcast two and a half...i f r six hundred overcast...its better in Texas...but...we got a long way to go here it appears at eighteen hundred zulu (1400) I'm showing i f r running from right around Chattanooga southeast Tennessee, across northern Alabama, down into central Mississippi and on to the southwest marginal v f r all the way through Tennessee, all the way over to Arkansas, Texarkana so it's gonna be awhile."

At 1240:02, the pilot said, "...these thunderstorms are the ones that seem to I uh heard just a few minutes ago there's one banging up in Nashville someplace."

The PF13 specialist gave the pilot the following information at 1240:09, "...we've had several convective at uh storm warning on the t v and center weather advisories for pilots and convective SIGMET's (significant meteorology) right now there's a big one just southeast of McKeller moving northeastward and then precipitation running from Anniston, Alabama, through Birmingham and up to the northwest from there east of Tupelo and into west Tennessee, so you'd be flying through precipitation." The pilot asked the specialist about cloud tops and the specialist said, "...well let me see if I got any pilot reports just on the low scud we got...no I have nothing at all."

At 1241:08, the pilot said, "...so there's no way of getting over the top...it seems so literally thin here because I'm not we're not having any dark stuff all morning it has just been foggy." The PF13 specialist then gave the pilot the following information, "...the precipitation's around Muscle Shoals a little bit southwest of Chattanooga, also probably down around Boaz or somewhere pushing up toward you but a pretty solid area of precipitation through west Tennessee...