Commuter Air Captain Dozes Off During Repositioning Flight, Recovers from High-Speed Descent (N27220)

Incident Overview and Pilot Background A commuter air carrier captain completed his last scheduled flight in Sacramento on March 31. He requested to be located in the Los Angeles or Santa Barbara area by April 1. The carrier offered an aircraft that needed to be repositioned to Santa Barbara. The pilot had never flown the aircraft solo but chose to proceed without waiting for a co-pilot. ## Flight Details and Recovery The pilot reported climbing to 17,500 feet and trimming the aircraft for cruise flight. He stated that he dozed off several times. When he last awoke, the aircraft was descending at over 300 knots, which exceeded the VNE of 246 knots. He was only able to recover using electric trim. ## Damage Assessment and Fatigue Upper wing skin panel damage was later observed by a passenger on a subsequent flight. According to the aircraft's manufacturer, the aircraft would have had to experience a calculated load factor of 7.8 G's to sustain the observed damage to the wing skin panels, stringers, and main spars. The pilot stated he had only slept 1.5 to 2 hours during the preceding 24-hour period.