What happened
During a repositioning flight from Teesside to Leeds, a solo pilot was operating an aircraft intended to pick up passengers for a flight to Alicante, Spain. While performing the approach to runway 14 at Leeds Bradford Airport, the pilot encountered low cloud cover and reduced visibility. After receiving clearance to descend to 3,000 feet and subsequently to land, the aircraft descended below the safe altitude and struck the summit of a hill located approximately 3.4 km before reaching the runway threshold. The accident resulted in one fatality, as the pilot was the only person on board.
Findings
Investigations into the crash highlighted discrepancies in pressure setting communications. At the time of the incident, the QNH was recorded at 1008 and the QFE at 983. The pilot failed to read these values back to air traffic control, and the controller did not prompt a verification, which deviates from standard procedures outlined in the Manual of Air Traffic Services.
A critical factor involved the difficulty of maintaining the specific approach profile required for the airport. While a standard 3-degree descent is easily calculated using a rate of 300 feet per nautical mile, the Localiser/DME approach for runway 14 requires a steeper 3.5° descent angle. Maintaining this precise angle is particularly challenging during single-pilot operations. Calculations indicated that while a 3.5° path at a pressure setting of 998 mb would have cleared the terrain by roughly 100 feet, a shallower 3-degree approach would have led to impact with the ground at the accident site.