Piper PA-28-181 N432RM

Summary

On 26 March 2008 at about 03:24 local time, a Piper PA-28-181 registered N432RM, operated by Rocky Mountain College, was involved in an accident near Bridger, Montana, United States. One person was on board and one had minor injuries. The aircraft was substantially damaged. The NTSB has published a probable cause for this accident; it is quoted in full below.

Date

26 March 2008 at 03:24

Classification

Accident

Location

Bridger, Montana, United States

Coordinates

45.1906, -108.5931

Aircraft

Piper PA-28-181

Registration

N432RM

Category

Airplane

Engines

1

Operator

Rocky Mountain College

Operating rule

Part 91: General Aviation

Purpose of flight

Instructional

Phase of flight

Not recorded

Route

Billings → Powell

Aircraft damage

Substantial

Weather

VMC

Light

Night

NTSB number

SEA08LA095

1 person had minor injuries.

The pilot failed to maintain situational awareness during the flight. Contributing to the accident were the dark night, the pilot's failure to follow approved navigational procedures for the flight, and the pilot's over reliance on the avionics in the airplane.

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

Read the full NTSB narrative

The pilot departed on a night, solo cross-country flight to fulfill a training requirement for his commercial pilot certificate. Although the pilot was aware that the flight was to be flown using dead reckoning and pilotage, he did not verify the ground checkpoints during the flight, which resulted in his loss of situational awareness. Following departure, the air traffic controller had the pilot fly southeast of the airport. After the pilot cleared the airspace, in an action inconsistent with established visual flight rules (VFR) procedures set by his school, the pilot incorrectly entered a true course rather than a magnetic course into the global positioning system (GPS) onboard the airplane. In the process of programming the GPS unit, he used a GPS course entry procedure that was only to be used during instrument flight procedures rather than VFR flight navigation. The pilot then activated the autopilot to fly the entered course. During the flight, the airplane entered instrument flight rules conditions and the pilot disconnected the autopilot. The pilot then received a warning on the GPS that the airplane was close to terrain. He began a left turn to return to visual flight rules. During the turn, the airplane impacted the terrain. The pilot did not report any mechanical or navigational anomalies with the airplane and none were identified during the postaccident examination of the wreckage and instrumentation.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record.