Cessna 177RG N53120

Summary

On 17 January 2010 at about 01:40 local time, a Cessna 177RG registered N53120, operated by Fisher Philip, was involved in an accident near Cedar Rapids, Iowa, United States. 3 people were on board and one was seriously injured, 2 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

17 January 2010 at 01:40

Classification

Accident

Location

Cedar Rapids, Iowa, United States

Nearest airport

Eastern Iowa (CID)

Coordinates

41.8847, -91.7108

Aircraft

Cessna 177RG

Registration

N53120

Category

Airplane

Engines

1

Operator

Fisher Philip

Operating rule

Part 91: General Aviation

Purpose of flight

Personal

Phase of flight

Not recorded

Route

Batavia → Cedar Rapids

Aircraft damage

Substantial

Weather

IMC

Light

Night/Dark

NTSB number

CEN10LA103

1 person was seriously injured.

The pilot's failure to maintain aircraft control while flying an instrument approach. Contributing to the accident was the pilot's lack of experience in actual instrument conditions.

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

Read the full NTSB narrative

The pilot's original destination was below weather minimums so he diverted to another airport. He flew the approach to runway 9 with one receiver/navigational unit tuned to the global positioning system (GPS) approach and one tuned to the instrument landing system (ILS) approach. He reported that he began getting conflicting information between the GPSs so he executed a missed approach. The pilot reported that during the second approach he had trouble maintaining the glideslope and he had to keep adding power to maintain a proper descent rate. He then received erratic information and needle oscillations on both glideslope indicators. The pilot stated that he was at full power, so he did not have additional power in order to climb for a missed approach. The pilot believes that the left wing stalled about 600 feet above the ground. He stated that he was in “some kind of spin” or unusual attitude with the “nose slightly downward and tilted slightly to the left.” The pilot reported that the last memory he has prior to impact was pulling up. The airplane impacted the terrain in an open field, which resulted in substantial damage to the fuselage and left wing. Radar data indicated that from the time the airplane was established on the approach up until the last minute of data available, the aircraft’s ground track varied from 97 degrees to 70 degrees, with a descent rate of approximately 500 feet per minute. The airplane’s rate of descent during the last 46 seconds of radar data increased to about 800 feet per minute and the heading changed from 95 degrees to 119 degrees, then to 13 degrees. The approaches were checked after the accident with no anomalies found. The pilot received his instrument rating two weeks prior to the accident. He reported having about 5 hours of actual instrument flight time and about 72 hours of simulated instrument flight time.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record.