What happened
On the night of 16 October 2006, a Diamond DA 40, registration OE-KLA, was conducting a delivery flight from Berlin to Borås, Sweden. The flight was planned under Visual Flight Rules (VFR) at an altitude of 6,000 feet. While cruising over the Baltic Sea, the pilot received updated weather information indicating deteriorating conditions at the intended destination. Consequently, the pilot decided to divert to Malmö/Sturup airport.
After receiving clearance to descend to 3,000 feet, the aircraft's flight profile initially appeared normal to air traffic controllers. However, as the aircraft reached approximately 3,000 feet, radar observations showed it entering a steep right turn accompanied by a rapid loss of altitude. Shortly thereafter, the aircraft's radar echo disappeared. A search and rescue operation later located wreckage in international waters, approximately 28 km south of Smygehamn, but all three occupants were killed in the impact.
The investigation
The investigation, conducted by the Swedish Accident Investigation Board (SHK) in coordination with Austrian authorities, examined the aircraft wreckage recovered 23 days after the accident. Investigators analyzed recovered electronic memory units from the aircraft to reconstruct the flight path and evaluate the performance of the autopilot and FADEC systems. Data from military radar stations in both Sweden and Germany were also utilized to track the aircraft's final maneuvers.
Findings
Analysis of the flight data and wreckage revealed that the descent began normally, but a malfunction in the autopilot occurred at approximately 4,400 feet, causing the system to disconnect. Following this failure, the pilot—who did not hold an instrument rating—likely lost control of the aircraft as the flight transitioned from visual conditions into instrument meteorological conditions (IMC).
The aircraft entered a high-speed spiral dive with a sink rate reaching up to 6,400 feet per minute. The investigation determined that the aircraft hit the water surface almost vertically. The crash was caused by the execution of a VFR flight in a manner that prevented the maintenance of visual meteorological conditions, with the autopilot failure acting as a contributing factor.