N21ND

HISTORY OF FLIGHTOn September 30, 2015, at 1147 eastern daylight time, a Piper PA-30, N21ND, was substantially damaged when it impacted terrain during takeoff from St Pete-Clearwater International Airport (PIE), Clearwater, Florida. The commercial pilot was fatally injured. The airplane was registered to Sowards Aircraft Leasing, LLC, and was operated under the provisions of 14 Code of Federal Regulations Part 91 as a personal flight. Visual meteorological conditions were reported near the accident site, and no flight plan was filed.

The airplane owner, who purchased the airplane 3 days before the accident flight, stated that he dispatched the accident pilot from San Diego, California, to Saint Petersburg, Florida, to pick up the airplane and fly it back to southern California. The airplane had recently undergone maintenance and an annual inspection.

On the morning of the accident, the pilot arrived at the airplane to meet the previous owner, accept the airplane, and review airplane-specific procedures and systems before the flight to California. According to the previous owner, they reviewed the airplane systems and spent much of their time going over aircraft performance characteristics and airspeeds. In addition, the previous owner stated that he told the pilot, "…if an engine loses power, you've got to keep the speed up." The previous owner offered several times to fly with the accident pilot for some additional familiarization training, but the pilot declined. The pilot stated that he planned to perform some "touch-and-goes" to familiarize himself with the airplane before departing the area.

According to radio communications recordings provided by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), at 1125, the accident pilot contacted ground control at PIE, requested a radio check, and stated his intentions to perform a few touch-and-go landings. At 1131, the pilot performed engine run-up checks and, 3 minutes later, taxied to runway 36. At 1135, the pilot was cleared onto runway 36 for takeoff. Several minutes later, while in the traffic pattern, he was cleared for and successfully completed the first touch-and-go landing.

At 1144, the pilot was cleared for the second touch-and-go landing. After the second landing and subsequent takeoff, several witnesses reported that, during the initial climb, the airplane seemed to "struggle" between 100 and 200 ft above the ground. A pilot holding short of the runway stated that the airplane had an unusually shallow climb and started drifting to the right of the runway centerline; at an altitude of about 100 ft, the airplane rolled sharply to the right then pitched 90° nose-down before colliding with the ground.

Video recorded by security cameras at the airport showed the airplane climbing with the landing gear extended during the takeoff. The flap position could not be ascertained from the video. The airplane rolled sharply to the right and descended in a steep nose-down attitude before it disappeared out of camera view. PERSONNEL INFORMATIONAccording to FAA airman, personal logbook, and employment records, the pilot held a commercial pilot certificate with ratings for airplane single-engine land, airplane multiengine land, and instrument airplane. He also held a flight instructor certificate, with ratings for airplane single-engine, airplane multiengine, and instrument airplane. He held a first-class medical certificate, issued January 16, 2014. He had accrued about 768 total hours of flight experience, with 166 hours of flight experience in multiengine airplanes. In the previous 90 days, the pilot had flown 221 hours, with 85 hours in the previous 30 days. The pilot's multiengine experience was limited to Piper PA-44 and Beechcraft BE-55 airplanes. There were no entries in his pilot logbook for the Piper PA-30. AIRCRAFT INFORMATIONAccording to FAA airworthiness and registration records, the airplane was manufactured in 1963. It was a twin-engine, low-wing, four-place airplane of metal construction. It was equipped with retractable tricycle landing gear and powered by two Lycoming IO-320-B1A engines, each equipped with a two-blade, constant-speed propeller. According to the maintenance logbooks, the most recent annual inspection of the airframe and engines was completed on September 10, 2015. At that time, the airframe had accumulated 7,252 total flight hours, and the left and right engines each had accumulated 1,583.4 hours since overhaul.

According to the mechanics who had most recently worked on the airplane, it arrived at their facility in March 2015 for an annual inspection, but, due to the amount of maintenance that needed to be performed and the length of time it took to order and receive parts, the maintenance was not completed until September 10, 2015. Prior to this maintenance, the last airframe and engine maintenance was accomplished on August 13, 2013.

Several mechanics stated that the airplane needed "a lot of work" when it arrived, and it required a significant amount of troubleshooting to determine why the left engine would not produce more than 1,600 rpm. Additionally, the right engine displayed low cylinder compression and was operating too lean. After successfully troubleshooting these issues and performing maintenance on the engines, the airplane was returned to service. According to the airplane's previous owner, the maintenance facility installed new fuel lines and drained the fuel tanks because the airplane had not flown for an extended period of time. The owner of the maintenance facility stated that they "flushed" the fuel system. Work order and airframe maintenance records showed that left and right fuel hoses were purchased and installed, and Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) airworthiness directive (AD) 83-10-01 for fuel contamination was accomplished. METEOROLOGICAL INFORMATIONThe recorded weather at PIE, at 1153, about 11 minutes after the accident, included wind from 300°at 10 knots, 10 statute miles visibility, few clouds at 2,300 ft, scattered clouds at 3,800 ft, and overcast clouds at 3,000 ft, temperature 29°C, dew point 24°C, and an altimeter setting of 29.82 inches of mercury. AIRPORT INFORMATIONAccording to FAA airworthiness and registration records, the airplane was manufactured in 1963. It was a twin-engine, low-wing, four-place airplane of metal construction. It was equipped with retractable tricycle landing gear and powered by two Lycoming IO-320-B1A engines, each equipped with a two-blade, constant-speed propeller. According to the maintenance logbooks, the most recent annual inspection of the airframe and engines was completed on September 10, 2015. At that time, the airframe had accumulated 7,252 total flight hours, and the left and right engines each had accumulated 1,583.4 hours since overhaul.

According to the mechanics who had most recently worked on the airplane, it arrived at their facility in March 2015 for an annual inspection, but, due to the amount of maintenance that needed to be performed and the length of time it took to order and receive parts, the maintenance was not completed until September 10, 2015. Prior to this maintenance, the last airframe and engine maintenance was accomplished on August 13, 2013.

Several mechanics stated that the airplane needed "a lot of work" when it arrived, and it required a significant amount of troubleshooting to determine why the left engine would not produce more than 1,600 rpm. Additionally, the right engine displayed low cylinder compression and was operating too lean. After successfully troubleshooting these issues and performing maintenance on the engines, the airplane was returned to service. According to the airplane's previous owner, the maintenance facility installed new fuel lines and drained the fuel tanks because the airplane had not flown for an extended period of time. The owner of the maintenance facility stated that they "flushed" the fuel system. Work order and airframe maintenance records showed that left and right fuel hoses were purchased and installed, and Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) airworthiness directive (AD) 83-10-01 for fuel contamination was accomplished. WRECKAGE AND IMPACT INFORMATIONThe airplane impacted a service road and came to rest upright in the grass 180 ft east of runway 36, about 1,450 ft before the end of the runway's paved surface. There was no postcrash fire, and all major components of the airplane were located near the site. The debris path consisted of small pieces of Plexiglas, heater hoses, the nose cone, a cabin door, and landing gear assembly that were outside of the immediate site near where the airplane first made contact with the ground, about 20 ft west of the main wreckage. Both the left and right engines remained attached to their mounts. The wreckage path was oriented perpendicular to runway 36 with the airplane upright and oriented on a magnetic heading of 280°.

The forward and lower portion of the cabin exhibited aft and upwards crushing. Both rudder pedals were compacted by the floor upwards under the instrument panel and could not be moved. The floor of the forward cabin was deformed by impact damage, but both seats remained attached to the floor-mounted seat rails. The pilot seat on the left side was moveable along the seat rails for several stops and was slightly deformed. The head rest was damaged. The right seat was jammed and could not be moved. Both front and back seats were functional and in place. The front seatbelts were functional and remained attached to their anchor points. There were no shoulder harnesses installed. Both fuel sector valves were on and functioned normally.

The fuselage aft of the rear seat, and immediately aft of the left wing, exhibited longitudinal tearing with the tail section twisted 10°to the right. The tear traversed the fuselage over the cabin roof and continued to the right side, where it terminated just aft of the baggage compartment. Control continuity was esta...