Cessna 401A N408JC

Summary

On 28 August 2006 at about 18:40 local time, a Cessna 401A registered N408JC was involved in an accident near Whick, Kentucky, United States. 7 people were on board and 7 died. The aircraft was destroyed. The NTSB has published a probable cause for this accident; it is quoted in full below.

Date

28 August 2006 at 18:40

Classification

Accident

Location

Whick, Kentucky, United States

Nearest airport

Wendell H. Ford (K20)

Coordinates

37.4019, -83.3561

Aircraft

Cessna 401A

Registration

N408JC

Category

Airplane

Engines

2

Operator

Not recorded

Operating rule

Part 91: General Aviation

Purpose of flight

Personal

Phase of flight

Not recorded

Route

Wichita Falls → Hazard

Aircraft damage

Destroyed

Weather

IMC

Light

Day

NTSB number

NYC06FA209

7 people died.

The non-instrument-rated pilot's continued flight into instrument meteorological conditions, and his subsequent failure to maintain airspeed which resulted in an inadvertent stall. Contributing was the instrument meteorological conditions.

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

Read the full NTSB narrative

The airplane departed on a long cross country flight, with thunderstorms and rain squalls along the general route. Approaching the destination airport, the airplane entered a rain squall, stalled, and impacted the ground in an almost vertical descent. Other than the onboard weather radar being previously removed for maintenance, there were no mechanical anomalies noted with the airplane. The pilot, whose logbook was not recovered, was not instrument-qualified. Although he was recently observed flying four to five times weekly, when the pilot applied for a multi-engine rating about 3 1/2 months earlier, he indicated 107 hours of total flight experience.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record.