What happened
On July 13, 2003, at approximately 14:50, a Nipper amateur-built aircraft, registration F-PTNF, performed an emergency landing in a harvested wheat field near Triquerville, France. The flight began at 09:00 from Lille Marcq-en-Barœul for a local coastal sightseeing flight near Dunkerque. The pilot departed without carrying any aeronautical charts, relying instead on familiar ground landmarks.
During the return leg, while flying at 3,000 feet, the pilot lost visual contact with landmarks due to degrading oblique visibility. Believing the aircraft was heading toward Armentières, the pilot instead landed at the Ursel aerodrome in Belgium at 11:55. After refueling, the pilot departed Ursel at 12:25, again without aeronautical charts, attempting to return to the original departure point.
While maintaining a heading of 210 degrees at 4,000 feet, the pilot became lost and declared an emergency on the Lille-Lesquin frequency at 13:40. Because the aircraft was not equipped with a transponder, air traffic services could not visually locate the plane via radar. At 14:33, controllers at Le Havre used radio direction finding from multiple aerodromes on the 121.5 MHz emergency frequency to locate the aircraft near the mouth of the Seine. Although controllers provided position updates and advised a diversion to Rouen, the aircraft's engine stopped at 14:41 due to fuel exhaustion. The pilot subsequently landed in a field, where the aircraft struck a tree stump.
The investigation
The investigation examined the pilot's flight preparation and the aircraft's equipment. It was noted that the pilot believed aeronautical charts were optional for local flights in familiar territory. The investigation also reviewed the regulatory requirements regarding required onboard documentation, which mandates that appropriate charts must be carried for all flights not strictly limited to aerodrome circuit patterns.
Findings
- The primary causes of the accident were insufficient flight preparation and management, compounded by the pilot's overconfidence.
- The pilot failed to carry necessary aeronautical charts for the intended route.
- The aircraft lacked a transponder, which prevented rapid identification by air traffic control.
- The engine failure was directly caused by the depletion of fuel during the period the pilot was lost.