N8231D

HISTORY OF FLIGHT

On January 5, 2007, at 0656 mountain standard time, a Piper PA-34-200T twin-engine airplane, N8231D, was destroyed when it impacted terrain following a loss of control while maneuvering near Manzanola, Colorado. The private pilot, who was the sole occupant and registered owner of the airplane, was fatally injured. Instrument meteorological conditions prevailed, and a flight plan was not filed for the Title 14 Code of Federal Regulations Part 91 personal flight. The flight departed the Pueblo Memorial Airport (PUB), Pueblo, Colorado, at 0641, and was destined for Tyler Pounds Regional Airport (TYR) Tyler, Texas.

On January 4, 2007, at 1725, the pilot contacted the Great Falls Automated Flight Service Station (AFSS), Great Falls, Montana, to obtain a standard weather briefing for a visual flight rules (VFR) flight from PUB to TYR with a planned departure time of 1900. During the 19-minute briefing, the briefer informed the pilot of the weather conditions along his planned route of flight which included an Airmen's Meteorological Information (AIRMET) for moderate icing that was in effect for the Pueblo area and instrument meteorological conditions (IMC) were present in the Tyler, Texas, area. The pilot then inquired to the briefer when a storm was expected in the Pueblo area. The briefer responded, "...actually expected to move in through the Denver area sometime this evening starting around 8 to 10 o'clock. It looks like Pueblo's not expecting theirs until morning. Right now, they're not expecting any, uh, snow developing until morning in Pueblo." After several minutes of discussion concerning weather around Texas and Oklahoma, the pilot stated, "Well, it looks like I'm just going to have to go part way and sleep somewhere." Prior to ending the conversation, the pilot stated, "...ultimately I have to be in Houston [Texas] before 7 o'clock tomorrow night..."

On January 4th, at 1842, the pilot contacted the Great Falls AFSS to obtain a standard weather briefing for a VFR flight from PUB to TYR with a planned departure time between 0400 and 0600 on January 5th. During the 7-minute briefing, the briefer informed the pilot of the weather conditions along his planned route of flight. The briefer inquired what time did the pilot want to leave, and the pilot responded, "...I want to beat the weather in Colorado, so." The briefing included instrument flight rules (IFR) weather for the TYR area in the morning and improving throughout the day. The pilot then stated, "Looks like the longer I can wait, the better." The briefer responded, "...as far as the Texas stuff, yeah, but don't dilly dally getting out of Pueblo you know." At the end of the briefing, the briefer informed the pilot that at 0500 on January 5th, new terminal forecasts would be available for his planned route of flight.

On January 5th, at 0452, the pilot contacted the Great Falls AFSS to obtain a standard weather briefing for a VFR flight from PUB to TYR with a planned departure time of approximately 0530. During the 17-minute briefing, the briefer informed the pilot of the weather conditions along his planned route of flight. The briefing included IFR conditions in the Colorado Springs, Colorado area (located approximately 30 nautical miles north of PUB) that were moving south, moderate icing condition for the state of Colorado, low ceilings and visibility along the planned route of flight. The pilot inquired about the conditions in Houston and asked, "What is uh Houston looking like cause I gotta go to Houston by seven tonight." The briefer informed the pilot that the terminal forecast for a local Houston airport was to expect high cirrus clouds, a broken cloud ceiling at 500 feet, 5 miles visibility, and fog moving into the area. During the call at 0505, the briefer informed the pilot about updated weather conditions in the Colorado area and the pilot responded, "so I've got a, I've got a little tunnel there that looks decent right now...from what that will tell me I've got a, I've got a open shot over the butte." The pilot then asked, "...I guess my question would be is where does it look like I can set down for?" The briefer responded, "Basically anywhere in the Texas panhandle, anywhere in western Kansas..." The conversation ended with the briefer informing the pilot of the weather conditions for the Liberal, Kansas, and Dalhart, Texas, airports, temporary flight restrictions (TFRs) and the Notices to Airmen (NOTAMs).

According to PUB air traffic control tower (ATCT) communications, prior to departure, the pilot informed the PUB ATCT controller that he was en route to Tyler, Texas. The ATCT controller then inquired whether the pilot would like flight following for the flight. The pilot at first responded, no; however, then responded, "why don't you go ahead and give me flight following 'til I get out of this weather, although I can't climb too high, so I don't know if they will be able to pick me up." The controller instructed the pilot to squawk transponder code 0346 and reported the current weather conditions as "2,000 overcast, visibility 10." The pilot responded, "I figured I'd get out of here before the weather set in."

At 0640, the pilot was cleared for takeoff from runway 8L at PUB. At 0644, the pilot stated, "I'm just at 6,700 and I'm just coming to the bottom of the clouds and I'm going to descend a little bit and proceed on course." The controller acknowledged the transmission. The pilot then stated, "Actually, it looks like it is kinda broken and scattered down here, it looks like the ceiling is a little bit higher than this." At 0648, the pilot asked the controller, "Pueblo, you still with me?" The controller acknowledged. At 0649, the controller stated, "Seneca 231D, 20 miles southwest of Pueblo. Radar services terminated, squawk 1200, frequency change approved. Have a good flight." The pilot acknowledged the transmission. No further communications were received by ATCT from the pilot.

According to radar data, the airplane departed from PUB and was traveling on a southeasterly heading. Between 0649 and 0655, the airplane maintained an altitude of 6,000 feet on headings between 116 and 138 degrees. At 0655:20, the airplane's ground speed was 133 knots on a heading of 084 degrees. At 0655:29, the radar targets revealed the airplane entered a descent of approximately 2,500 feet per minute (fpm) and a turn to a heading of 342 degrees. At 0655:48, the airplane then entered a 3,000 fpm climb and a turn to a heading of 286 degrees. At 0655:58, the airplane's ground speed was 108 knots with a 1,200 fpm climb on a heading of 307 degrees. At 0656:08, the airplane entered a 1,300 fpm descent and subsequently, radar contact was lost.

A friend of the pilot, who was interviewed by the NTSB investigator-in-charge, stated that the pilot was flying to Texas to visit her. She stated the pilot planned on leaving the previous day; however, because he was not instrument rated, he decided to wait. At 0523 on the morning of the accident, the friend received a phone call from the pilot and he stated he was planning to leave in 30 minutes. The pilot mentioned to her that he checked the weather at 0330 via computer and that there were clouds in the Tyler area, so he may have to wait it out in a little town. According to the friend, the clouds did not lift in Tyler until approximately 1500. At 1700, the friend got concerned, went to the airport, and made several phone calls in an attempt to locate the pilot. The friend stated the pilot made several trips in the previous months from PUB to TYR.

At 1921, an Alert Notice (ALNOT) was issued by Denver Air Route Traffic Control Center for the accident airplane. According to local authorities, Civil Air Patrol (CAP) contacted them at 2230 regarding a missing aircraft. A ground search was initiated by the CAP and local authorities at 0300, on January 6, 2007. At 0900, a CAP air search located the airplane wreckage in snow covered terrain approximately 40 miles southeast of PUB.

PERSONNEL INFORMATION

The pilot, age 49, held a private pilot certificate with single-engine and multi-engine land ratings. The pilot was issued a third-class medical certificate on September 30, 2005, with no restrictions or limitations. The pilot's logbook was not located during the investigation. According to the pilot's multi-engine land Federal Aviation Administration's (FAA) Airman Certificate and/or Rating Application, dated March 27, 2006, the pilot had accumulated 308.3 total flight hours, 27.1 flight hours in the accident airplane make and model, and 7 hours of simulated instrument time.

A friend of the pilot reported he had accumulated between 500 to 600 flight hours at the time of the accident.

AIRCRAFT INFORMATION

The 1980-model Piper PA-34-200T, serial number 34-8070260, was a low-wing, twin-engine airplane. The airplane was powered by Teledyne Continental Motors (TCM) TSIO-360-EB (left) and LTSIO-360-EB (right), engines. The airplane was equipped with three-blade McCauley constant speed, aluminum alloy propellers. The airplane was configured to carry six occupants.

The airplane was issued a standard airworthiness certificate on June 6, 1980, and was certificated for normal category operations. The airplane was registered to the pilot on September 19, 2006. A review of the airplane maintenance records revealed the airframe underwent an annual inspection on August 11, 2006, at a total time of 3,826 hours. The airplane was equipped with a Bendix/King KWX50 weather radar unit and a 3M WX-8 stormscope.

According to fuel records obtained from a PUB fixed based operator (FBO), the airplane's fuel tanks were topped off with 82.8 gallons of fuel on January 5, 2007.

METEOROLOGICAL INFORMATION

At 0553, the PUB automated surface observing system (ASOS), located approximately 40 miles northeast of the accident site, reported the wind from 3...