Piper PA-31-350 N411WL

Summary

On 26 September 1999 at about 03:26 local time, a Piper PA-31-350 registered N411WL was involved in an accident near Volcano, Hawaii, United States. 10 people were on board and 10 died. The aircraft was destroyed. The NTSB has published a probable cause for this accident; it is quoted in full below.

Date

26 September 1999 at 03:26

Classification

Accident

Location

Volcano, Hawaii, United States

Coordinates

19.4905, -155.2303

Aircraft

Piper PA-31-350

Registration

N411WL

Category

Airplane

Engines

2

Operator

Not recorded

Operating rule

Part 135: Air Taxi & Commuter

Purpose of flight

Unknown

Phase of flight

Not recorded

Route

Kona → Unknown

Aircraft damage

Destroyed

Weather

IMC

Light

Day

NTSB number

DCA99MA088

10 people died.

the pilot's decision to continue visual flight into instrument meteorological conditions (IMC) in an area of cloud-covered mountainous terrain. Contributing to the accident were the pilot's failure to properly navigate and his disregard for standard operating procedures, including flying into IMC while on a visual flight rules flight plan and failure to obtain a current preflight weather briefing.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record. This site does not paraphrase or interpret it.

Read the full NTSB narrative

The full report (NTSB/AAB-01-02) is available on the NTSB Web site. See http://www.ntsb.gov/Publictn/publictn.htm for details. On September 25, 1999, about 1726 Hawaiian standard time, Big Island Air flight 58, a Piper PA-31-350 (Chieftain), N411WL, crashed on the northeast slope of the Mauna Loa volcano near Volcano, Hawaii. The pilot and all nine passengers on board were killed, and the airplane was destroyed by impact forces and a postimpact fire. The sightseeing tour flight was operating under 14 Code of Federal Regulations Part 135 as an on-demand air taxi operation. A visual flight rules flight plan was filed, and visual meteorological conditions existed at the Keahole-Kona International Airport, Kona, Hawaii, from which the airplane departed about 1622. The investigation determined that instrument meteorological conditions prevailed in the vicinity of the accident site.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record.