Both a Tower and a TRACON Controller reported a departing aircraft lost all its navigation capabilities resulting in course and altitude deviations. One reporter stated this has been a recurring issue with this aircraft.
Synopsis
Both a Tower and a TRACON Controller reported a departing aircraft lost all its navigation capabilities resulting in course and altitude deviations. One reporter stated this has been a recurring issue with this aircraft.
Narrative
Aircraft X departed ZZZ on a SID. The aircraft was not flying the procedure correctly and in doing so was creating a traffic situation with an arrival on an instrument approach. I observed the identifier and turned aircraft to avoid traffic. I also verified which procedure the pilot was flying. Even though I had radar identified the aircraft I forgot to tell the pilot he was [in] radar contact. The pilot continued to have problems following headings then I noticed a 360 turn and the pilot was having trouble with his altitude. I had the Controller In Charge tell ZZZ of the situation because it looked like the aircraft was going to crash. I asked the pilot if he [needed assistance] and could he just level the plane. He did and regained some control of [the] aircraft. Overall the plane lost autopilot all navigation; gyro; directional gyro; horizontal situation indicator. I climbed the pilot to VFR conditions with no gyro vectors to VMC. We then got him going to VFR airport. Landed safe with ZZZ1 center.During this event ZZZ contacted a pilot who has flown this aircraft. He said this plane did this last week. He helped us and the pilot troubleshoot during the event. My suggestion is why wasn't the plane fixed. Was it worked on? Was the pilot notified of the occurrence before? ZZZ FBO in my opinion does some things I don't like for cost savings and I hope this wasn't one of them. I don't know if the plane was worked on or not. I hope this is investigated. The pilot of Aircraft X almost lost his life in an out of control spiral and could have crashed and might have crashed into an arriving aircraft as well.
Second reporter narrative
Aircraft X asked for his clearance. When giving his clearance I gave the initial altitude and started to give the departure frequency and on frequency said; 'sorry. Maintain 4000 expect flight level 270 5 minutes after departure.' I continued with the rest of the clearance. On the pilot's read back he did not say as filed after the SID. But everything he did read back was correct. When he departed he had navigation problems; requested priority handling and flew to ZZZ2. I do not know if the pilot had any other problems. I would like to know if it is acceptable to just get the SID and not have the pilot read back as filed. Our LOA with ZZZ TRACON states we issue SID on destination airports. The SID does not always match the flight route. I would like to see the ZZZ TRACON Controller receive acknowledgement for the excellent work they did.
Source: NASA Aviation Safety Reporting System (public domain). Reports are voluntary submissions and are not verified by NASA.