2020 Piper PA-28 accident near Dominica (F-OGKO)

Accident Overview and Investigation Authority On 16 February 2020, a Piper PA-28-161 with registration F-OGKO, operated by Aéroclub Les Ailes Guadeloupéennes, collided with the water surface shortly after take-off at night near Dominica. The flight was a cross-country operation carrying a pilot and three passengers. All four persons on board were fatally injured, and the aeroplane was destroyed. Dominica, as the state of occurrence and a member of the Eastern Caribbean Civil Aviation Authority (ECCAA), opened the safety investigation and delegated it to the French BEA on 19 February 2020. The BEA conducted the investigation with participation from ECCAA representatives, and the final report was published in June 2021. ## Flight History and Sequence of Events The accident occurred during a day-long tourist excursion organized by the flying club to Dominica. Sixteen people, including members of the club's Executive Committee, were divided among four aeroplanes. The pilots took off from runway 12 at Pointe-à-Pitre - Le Raizet airport in Guadeloupe, arriving at Douglas-Charles airport in Dominica around 09:30. Due to accumulated delays throughout the day, the return flight was scheduled for daylight but the passengers arrived back at Douglas-Charles airport at dusk. The four aeroplanes took off for Pointe-à-Pitre at night from runway 09. The pilot of F-OGKO took off in third position at 18:43. After take-off, the tower controller at Douglas-Charles airport asked the pilot to call back at 1,500 ft. The pilot read back the instruction in a vague and hesitant manner. A few minutes later, after receiving no responses from the pilot despite multiple radio calls, the controller asked the approach control unit at Pointe-à-Pitre airport if they had the aeroplane on the frequency. The controller stated they did not have the aeroplane on the frequency or on the radar. Radar track recordings showed the aeroplane reached an altitude of around 750 ft. The track stopped at 18:46 when the aeroplane was at an altitude of around 550 ft, to the north-east and 1.6 NM from the threshold of runway 27 at Douglas-Charles airport. Following an alert from a witness who alleged having seen an aeroplane fall into the bay, search and rescue operations were jointly started by the French and Dominican authorities. ## Site, Wreckage, and Search Operations According to recorded radar data, the aeroplane crashed into the sea less than 2 NM from the coast. In the supposed zone of the accident, the sea is approximately 40 metres deep. Three helicopters, two from the Pointe-à-Pitre civil defence and one from the French Navy, a C26 from Barbados, and six boats were deployed to conduct a visual search. The search was suspended on 18 February at around 14:00 having been unable to locate the wreckage or the bodies of the victims. Subsequent searches were undertaken, funded by one of the victim's families, but were also unsuccessful. In the days that followed, debris from inside the aeroplane and personal belongings of the occupants were found floating a few kilometres off the coast. Personal belongings also washed up below a house located on top of a cliff on the north side of the airport. The occupant of this house, at home at the time of the accident, reported having heard a loud, steady and constant noise which suddenly stopped. He thought the noise was at a height similar to that of his house. He stated that he did not usually hear aeroplanes taking off in the direction of Guadeloupe as these aeroplanes are at a distance and high up. Lastly, fishermen found pieces of debris from the structure of an aircraft floating on the surface of the sea a few days after the accident. There was no information about their location. The analysis of the photographs of the parts showed them to be the main right landing gear and a section of the main spar of the wing of a PA28 151-161. The examination of these parts provided no information as to why the accident had occurred. ## Aerodrome, Meteorological, and Aircraft Information Douglas-Charles airport is located on the east coast of the island. It is open for public air traffic and the air traffic control service is available between 06:00 and 22:00. It has a paved runway 09/27, measuring 1,758 m long and 45 m wide. The airport is equipped with lighting comprising runway end and threshold lights, runway edge lights and taxiway edge lights. The threshold of runway 27 is located 150 m from the coast. Aeroplanes that take off from runway 09 at Douglas-Charles airport fly directly over the sea. At night, with good visibility, the first light references are the lights of Marie-Galante island (16 NM to the north) which only appear on the right after a left turn towards Pointe-à-Pitre. Pilots who use the airport frequently say that, by day, the airport presents no particular difficulties but requires good night flight experience due to the lack of external visual references immediately after take-off. On Dominica on the day of the accident, the sun set at 18:08. The occupants of the other aeroplanes in the group stated that during their take-off, it had been a dark night with no moon and no visual references once over the sea. The information provided by Météo-France indicated, between 17:00 and 19:00, moderate trade winds and passing light showers associated with low clouds. The satellite images from the Le Moule radar between 18:30 and 19:00 confirmed the presence of rain on Dominica and notably around Douglas-Charles airport. The information from the automatic weather station at Douglas-Charles airport, provided by Météo-France and the airport meteorological service, indicated wind direction 110.0° at 11 kt at 17:00, 130.0° at 6 kt at 18:00, 120.0° at 10 G 22 kt at 19:00, and 120.0° at 7 kt at 20:00. Cloud cover was SCT016 at 17:00, SCT016 at 18:00, SCT016 at 19:00, and BKN015 at 20:00. QNH was 1015 hPa at 17:00 and 18:00, and 1016 hPa at 19:00 and 20:00. Visibility was greater than 10 km at all times. Temperature was 26°C at 17:00, 25°C at 18:00, and 25°C at 20:00. The 18:00 and 19:00 meteorological reports from Douglas-Charles airport also indicated rain nearby, notably to the east of the airport. Recordings taken from the airport surveillance cameras were viewed and showed light rain at the airport at the time F-OGKO took off. A pilot on the ground at the airport confirmed that there had been a squall at the airport when the aeroplane took off. This squall, which he qualified as “normal”, had lasted around 15 minutes. He said it had been a very dark night and that it was cloudy with the first clouds appearing at an estimated altitude of 1,700 ft during his take-off at around 20:00. According to the information available in the aeroplane's maintenance documents, the engine was removed in June 2019 for overhaul. An annual inspection of the aeroplane was carried out on 15 January 2020 following installation of the overhauled engine. An instructor from the flying club, accompanied by the mechanic responsible for the servicing of the aeroplane at the flying club, performed two check flights, lasting 10 to 20 minutes, on 14 February. No anomaly, except for a problem concerning the aeroplane's transponder, was identified. The spectral analysis of the ATC communications between the pilot of F-OGKO and the air traffic controller at Charles-Douglas airport revealed no technical anomaly linked to the engine and to its components that may have contributed to the accident. ## Pilot Information and Club Excursion Two of the four persons on board the aeroplane held a Private Pilot Licence - Aeroplane (PPL(A)). According to witnesses, these two persons were sat in the front two seats. It was not possible to determine who was sat in the left seat and was flying at the time of the accident. An instructor at the flying club, who did not take part in the excursion, explained that, in his opinion, neither of the two pilots were experienced enough to perform the flight, by night or by day. The flying experience of the pilots was determined based on individual records saved by the flying club on the pilot log software. The first pilot held a PPL(A) issued in 2012 along with a SEP rating valid until 31 May 2021 and a night rating obtained in 2014. He had logged approximately 90 flight hours at the time of the accident, mostly in the PA28. He had not flown in 2018, had logged eight flight hours in 2019 including six hours in instruction, and less than two flight hours in instruction in 2020 (29 January). His last flight on F-OGKO was in May 2019. He had not carried out a night flight since 2014. The pilot was treasurer of the flying club. Information from statements indicated that during the outbound flight to Dominica, this pilot had been pilot-in-command and communicated with the controllers on the frequency. During the return flight, it was this same pilot who communicated on the frequency with the air traffic controllers. The second pilot held a PPL(A) issued in 2016 along with a SEP rating valid up to 31 March 2020. He did not have a night rating or English language endorsement. He had logged approximately 90 flight hours. He had not flown between March 2018 and January 2020. In 2020, he had made four flights under instruction (two cross-country flights in January and two local flights in February). The instructor of the pilot's last two flights stated that the pilot did not yet have a level sufficient to be signed off to fly the club's aeroplanes. It had been agreed with the pilot that more instruction flights were necessary.