N1804E

HISTORY OF FLIGHTOn May 12, 2017, about 1152 central daylight time, a Beech A36TC, N1804E, impacted trees and terrain near Hopkinsville, Kentucky. The private pilot and the passenger were fatally injured, and the airplane was destroyed. The airplane was owned by Cremair LLC and operated by the pilot under the provisions of Title 14 Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) Part 91. Instrument meteorological conditions (IMC) prevailed in the accident area, and the flight was receiving visual flight rules (VFR) flight following services from air traffic control (ATC). The flight originated about 0942 from Davenport Municipal Airport (DVN), Davenport, Iowa, and was destined for Northwest Alabama Regional Airport (MSL), Muscle Shoals, Alabama.

According to Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) ATC audio and radar information, after takeoff, the airplane proceeded in a southeast direction and climbed to about 5,550 ft mean sea level (msl). About 1106, the airplane began to climb to about 7,500 ft msl while continuing in the southeast direction. About 1109, when the airplane was about 3 nautical miles (nm) east-northeast of Johnson City, Illinois, and about 7,500 ft msl, its heading changed to a northeast direction. The airplane remained on the northeast heading for about 3 minutes and then proceeded in an east-southeast direction while maintaining about 7,500 ft msl. The airplane remained on the east-southeast heading until about 1131, and then, when it was near Henderson, Kentucky, the airplane turned to a south heading. The airplane maintained about 7,500 ft msl until 1138 when it began descending.

The airplane continued to head south while descending, and about 1141, while southwest of Madisonville, Kentucky and in contact with Fort Campbell Approach, was provided the altimeter setting of 29.84, which he correctly read back. The pilot then advised the controller that he was descending out of 5,000 ft msl, and the controller asked if he wanted to land somewhere. The pilot replied, "yeah uh we're gonna hold for this weather I guess ah." The controller provided the name of Outlaw Field Airport (CKV), Clarksville, Tennessee, which had a full-service fixed base operator, and about 1145, the controller asked the pilot his intentions. At this time, the airplane was about 3,500 ft msl, and the pilot responded, "…uh I am not sure yet here um I need to get down a little bit more here to see what we got." The controller acknowledged and provided the pilot with the 1053 hourly weather observation at CKV, which included a ceiling at 1,100 ft above ground level (agl). The pilot replied, "alright we'll see if we can do that." (Recorded radar data was not available from 1146 to the time of the accident.)

About 1148, the pilot advised the controller, "yeah uh I am looking at my uh weather here, if I don't land here uh it looks like I will be clear here in just a little bit is that correct." The controller provided the pilot information that included a ceiling of 6,000 ft agl, a ceiling of 7,000 ft agl, the wind, and visibility at MSL; the ceiling at an airport in Nashville, Tennessee; and concluded by stating, "…so it looks like it's much clearer down south." The pilot informed the controller that he intended to climb to 3,500 ft msl, and the controller responded that VFR climb was approved and asked the pilot what heading would be appropriate for weather avoidance. About 1149, the pilot replied, "uh I'd say southeast." The controller instructed the pilot to fly a heading of 150°, and the pilot acknowledged.

According to the Fort Campbell Approach controller, about 1149, he noticed that the airplane was maneuvering erratically; it was descending and "making a sharp turn to the left, a change in direction to the north." The airplane then climbed to 2,100 ft msl and turned back on course. At 1152, the track went into coast and eventually dropped off radar. The controller repeatedly attempted to contact the pilot, but there was no reply.

A witness who was outside near his residence about 1.4 nm east of the accident site reported hearing a "high revving engine sound." He could not see the airplane because it was in the clouds, but the sound indicated that the airplane was in a steep dive. He then saw the airplane beneath the low overcast clouds moving "horizontally" at a high rate of speed in a westerly direction. He heard an impact about 15 to 30 seconds later, reported the accident, and then drove to the area where he thought the airplane had crashed. He advised the property owner who conducted a search of his property and located the wreckage.

The witness further reported he could not tell the pitch and roll attitudes of the airplane but stated it, "looked basically flat" adding, that he only saw the airplane for a short period of time, and could not even tell what type of airplane it was. He did indicate that the weather conditions become worse, but there was no thunder or lightning about that time. He did not hear any abnormal engine sounds. He described the sound he heard being similar to the sound made when a friend of his performs aerobatic maneuvers. He thought the pilot was in trouble, adding the, "weather was tough at the moment."

According to the property owner, the weather conditions at the time consisted of mist and overcast clouds with no wind. PERSONNEL INFORMATIONThe pilot, age 69, held a private pilot certificate with an airplane single-engine land rating that was issued on September 20, 1997. He held a third-class medical certificate with a limitation to wear corrective lenses that was issued on March 1, 2017.

A review of the pilot's logbook, which contained entries from March 17, 1997, to April 25, 2017, revealed that he had logged 726.7 hours of flight experience of which 19 hours were in the accident airplane in the last 90 days. Between December 1999 and April 8, 2016, he logged 16.4 hours actual instrument flight time of which 2.1 hours were as pilot-in-command (PIC), with the latest dated May 31, 2013. Of the 16.4 hours actual instrument flight time, 11.8 hours were accrued between December 1999 and April 2000, while the remainder of the flight time (4.6 hours) were accrued during 6 flights between May 22, 2013 and April 8, 2016. Between April 1997 and April 2000, he logged 80.1 hours simulated instrument time. The remainder of his simulated instrument time consisting of 1.6 hours was accrued during 2 separate flights, one in 2005 and one in 2009. Of his 81.7 hours logged simulated instrument time, 10.6 hours were as PIC. His last flight review in accordance with 14 CFR Part 61.56 occurred on either October 24 or 25, 2015, as documented in separate locations of his logbook. The flight review was conducted in a Cessna 177, and the flight duration was 2.5 hours. AIRCRAFT INFORMATIONThe six-place, low-wing airplane, serial number EA-231, was manufactured in 1981. It was powered by a 300-horsepower Continental Motors, Inc., TSIO-520-UB(2) engine and equipped with a constant-speed, three-bladed Hartzell propeller.

The airplane was equipped with a portable Garmin GPS receiver, a JPI EDM 700 engine data monitor, and an Appareo Stratus 2S wireless ADS-B receiver. All three devices sustained extensive impact damage, and no data pertaining to the accident flight could not be recovered from the devices.

The Stratus 2S device provided in-flight weather information via Flight Information System-Broadcast (FIS-B), GPS information, ADS-B traffic information, and was compatible with the ForeFlight Mobile App.

Review of the airplane's maintenance records revealed that its last annual inspection was completed on April 4, 2017, at a recorded tachometer time of 3,182.57 hours. The tachometer reading at the time of the accident was 3,197.84 hours.

According to the manager/registered agent of the corporation that owned the airplane, he last flew the airplane on May 4, 2017, on two separate flights lasting about 20 to 30 minutes each. He reported that on the first flight, when he attempted to "lean [the mixture] to lean of peak," the No. 5 cylinder would reach peak exhaust gas temperature (EGT) too soon and would run rough before the other cylinders had even reached peak EGT, but the engine ran fine when the mixture was full rich. On the second flight, he was able to lean the mixture to lean of peak and had no issues with the No. 5 cylinder EGT. METEOROLOGICAL INFORMATIONThere was no record that the pilot obtained a preflight weather briefing using either Lockheed Martin Flight Service Station or DUATS.

According to ForeFlight personnel, the pilot did not request any weather briefings on or around May 12, 2017. The pilot viewed some weather imagery on May 11 and 12; the images that the pilot viewed were extended convective forecast products. There was no record that the pilot used Foreflight to view any other weather information, such as weather observations or forecasts, that would have provided cloud cover or cloud ceiling information along the route of flight.

An AIRMET advisory for IFR conditions in southwestern Kentucky and northern Tennessee was issued at 0945 and valid at the accident time for the accident site. A visible image from 1215 showed extensive cloud cover with tops about 32,000 ft msl around the accident site.

The Fort Campbell, Kentucky, Weather Surveillance Radar-1988, Doppler (WSR-88D) base reflectivity images indicated that the airplane flew through an area of 5 to 25 dBZ reflectivity values, corresponding to light precipitation, during the last 5 minutes of the flight. The 0.5° and 1.5° elevation scans detected reflectivity values above the accident site between 800 ft msl and 5,000 ft msl. The reflectivity values increased in area and intensity above the accident site between 1140 and 1200.

A visible satellite image from 1215 showed extensive cloud cover around accident site. The cloud tops were around 32,000 ft msl.

The closest upper air sounding depicted the freezing level well above 10,000 f...