Flight History
On April 19, 2018, at 0843 eastern daylight time, a Cirrus SR22 airplane, registration N451TD, impacted terrain near Williamsburg, Pennsylvania. The airplane was registered to CPD-JJD, LLC and operated by the pilot under 14 CFR Part 91 as a personal flight. Instrument meteorological conditions (IMC) prevailed along the route, and an instrument flight rules (IFR) flight plan had been filed. The airplane departed Lancaster Airport (LNS), Pennsylvania, at 0734, initially en route to South Bend International Airport (SBN), Indiana, but the pilot later diverted toward Altoona-Blair County Airport (AOO), Pennsylvania.
At about 0828, while at 5,425 ft mean sea level (msl) on a 284° heading, the pilot contacted an approach controller at John Murtha Johnstown-Cambria County Airport (JST) and requested to divert to JST due to ice accumulation. The controller advised that clouds at JST were overcast at 200 ft agl and at AOO overcast at 500 ft agl. At 0831, the pilot requested vectors to AOO for an instrument landing system (ILS) approach. The controller cleared the airplane to 4,500 ft msl, the lowest altitude available in that area. At 0842, the controller advised the pilot that the airplane had passed through the localizer. The pilot still wanted to land at AOO and requested vectors to intercept. The controller issued vectors for a box pattern. The airplane began a left standard rate turn at 0842:33, remaining about 4,000 ft msl. At 0843:12, the airplane started to descend, and airspeed increased. At 0843:38, it descended through 2,525 ft msl in a tight left spiral. The final radar return was at 0843:52 at 1,850 ft msl, still in a tight left spiral. Radar and communications were then lost. Before the final turn and spiral, the flight path and altitudes were normal with no erratic maneuvers.
Pilot Information
The pilot's logbook showed 70 hours of total flight experience from 1980 to 1985, with no additional time until 2011. He first flew the accident airplane on January 31, 2014, and logged flights exclusively in it from April 9, 2014. A flight instructor reported flying with the pilot six times in the six months before the accident, four of which were for instrument currency. The most recent flight was on November 30, 2017, with ILS and GPS approaches in simulated IMC. The pilot's logbooks indicated recent instrument experience requirements were met.
Aircraft Information
The Cirrus SR22 was not equipped with an anti-icing or deicing system. The cockpit included an airspeed indicator, attitude indicator, altimeter, turn coordinator, vertical speed indicator, Garmin mechanical course deviation indicator, and Sandel SN3308 electronic horizontal situation indicator. The airplane had an S-TEC 55X autopilot, Garmin GTX345 transponder, dual Garmin GNS 430 units, and an ARNAV ICDS-2000 multifunction display with engine monitoring. The Garmin GNS 430 was approved for IFR; the ARNAV was for reference only. The airplane was equipped with a Cirrus Airframe Parachute System (CAPS). The CAPS activation handle had the safety pin installed; the system was found deployed due to impact forces and thermal exposure, not in-flight activation.
Meteorological Conditions
The pilot obtained a weather briefing the night before at 2127 and filed an IFR flight plan via ForeFlight. The briefing included standard information valid for a 0645 departure, but some forecast products did not cover that time. Graphical forecasts predicted cloud cover as low as 2,000 ft msl and marginal VFR with likely snow showers. Terminal aerodrome forecasts for AOO and JST called for IFR and low IFR between 0200 and 1000. An AIRMET valid until 0500 was received; at the accident time, an active AIRMET for moderate icing, IFR/mountain obscuration, and low-level turbulence was in effect. An updated AIRMET from 0452 was recorded but it could not be determined if the pilot checked it. Current and forecast icing potential products indicated probabilities of icing. Satellite imagery showed abundant cloud cover with cloud-top temperatures between -5° and -15°C. IMC and icing conditions would have ended above the cloud layer.
Wreckage and Impact
The airplane impacted a field 9.5 miles northeast of AOO. The debris path was about 200 ft long on a magnetic heading of 150° at an elevation of 1,025 ft msl. Ground scars were consistent with a steep, nose-low, wings-level attitude. The engine, firewall, and three propeller blades were found in a 3-ft-deep impact crater. A postimpact fire consumed most of the wreckage. Both directional and turn coordinator gyros showed rotational scoring. The ARNAV unit was destroyed by fire. The CAPS parachute was deployed and extended along the debris path. Examinations of the airframe and engine revealed no preaccident mechanical malfunctions.
Medical and Pathological Information
An autopsy attributed the pilot's cause of death to blunt force trauma. The pilot had mild-to-moderate atherosclerotic coronary artery disease with 50% stenosis of the left coronary artery and 30% stenosis of the left circumflex coronary artery. Toxicology testing detected 10 mg/dL ethanol in liver tissue but not in muscle; diphenhydramine in liver and muscle; amlodipine in kidney; atenolol in kidney and heart; and 0.039 µg/mL 7-amino-clonazepam in kidney and 0.026 µg/mL in lung. Ethanol may be postmortem. Diphenhydramine is a sedating antihistamine with an FDA warning about impaired performance. Amlodipine and atenolol are nonimpairing blood pressure medications that the pilot had reported. Clonazepam, the parent drug of 7-amino-clonazepam, is a sedating benzodiazepine with an FDA warning about engaging in hazardous tasks; no prescription was found.