What happened
At night, witnesses reported hearing an airplane engine operating at high power for approximately five seconds, immediately followed by the sound of an impact. Upon arriving at the scene, responders found the aircraft on fire on the left side of the approach end of runway 03. The pilot was removed from the wreckage and the fire was extinguished.
The aircraft had struck a runway threshold light situated roughly 25 feet to the left of the runway. Following this impact, the plane slid approximately 100 feet into trees, moving away from the runway on a heading of 360 degrees. The pilot sustained head injuries and reported no memory of the accident.
The investigation
Examination of the wreckage revealed that the outboard five feet of the left wing was bent upward by about 20 degrees, while the inboard section of the left wing came to rest on the nose of the aircraft. Ground scars were identified at the positions of the left, right, and nose landing gears, all of which had collapsed during the event.
The propeller blades exhibited leading edge gouges and "S" shaped bending. While flight control continuity was verified for the rudder and elevator, investigators found that the aileron control cables had separated. These separations featured puffed ends and occurred at locations other than the intended attach points.