Rotherwick Hr GLASAIR III N471B

Summary

On 17 May 2012 at about 22:02 local time, a Rotherwick Hr GLASAIR III registered N471B, operated by Layne Johnson, was involved in an accident near Darby, Montana, United States. 2 people were on board and nobody was injured. The aircraft was substantially damaged. The NTSB has published a probable cause for this accident; it is quoted in full below.

Date

17 May 2012 at 22:02

Classification

Accident

Location

Darby, Montana, United States

Coordinates

45.9883, -114.1672

Aircraft

Rotherwick Hr GLASAIR III

Registration

N471B

Category

Airplane

Engines

1

Operator

Layne Johnson

Operating rule

Part 91: General Aviation

Purpose of flight

Positioning

Phase of flight

Not recorded

Route

Troutdale → Billings

Aircraft damage

Substantial

Weather

VMC

Light

Day

NTSB number

WPR12CA213

Nobody was injured.

The pilot’s loss of directional control during an emergency landing on a paved highway.

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

Read the full NTSB narrative

The pilot reported that, about 2 hours into a visual flight rules cross-country flight, he enriched the mixture due to indications of excessive cylinder head and exhaust gas temperatures. This resulted in a higher fuel burn than planned, so he changed the flight’s destination to a closer airport. While en route to his amended destination, he encountered instrument meteorological conditions. A subsequent buildup of ice resulted in a loss of 100 knots of airspeed as the airplane entered a controlled descent. The pilot executed a 180-degree turn and broke out of the clouds over a valley. During the next 50 minutes, he made several attempts to exit the valley; however, mountain peak obscuration and a thunderstorm prevented him from flying out of the valley. Now very close to fuel exhaustion, he elected to land on a two-lane highway. During the landing roll, the airplane veered off the side of the road, impacted a tree, slid backwards through a ditch, and collided with a concrete drainage culvert. The airplane sustained damage to the outboard sections of both wings.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record.