Airplane Factory (Pty) Ltd the SLING N511NG

Summary

On 30 April 2014 at about 06:55 local time, a Airplane Factory (Pty) Ltd the SLING registered N511NG was involved in an accident near Daggett, California, United States. 2 people were on board and one was seriously injured, 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

30 April 2014 at 06:55

Classification

Accident

Location

Daggett, California, United States

Nearest airport

Barstow-Daggett (KDAG)

Coordinates

34.7953, -116.8872

Aircraft

Airplane Factory (Pty) Ltd the SLING

Registration

N511NG

Category

Airplane

Year built

2011

Engines

1

Operator

Not recorded

Operating rule

Part 91: General Aviation

Purpose of flight

Instructional

Phase of flight

Not recorded

Route

Torrance → Daggett

Aircraft damage

Substantial

Weather

VMC

Light

Night/Dark

NTSB number

WPR14LA177

1 person was seriously injured.

The pilots’ failure to maintain clearance from terrain while operating in dark night, visual meteorological conditions. Contributing to the accident was the pilots’ failure to enable the aural terrain warning system.

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

Read the full NTSB narrative

The sport pilot and flight instructor were approaching the destination airport at the conclusion of a night cross-country flight in the light sport airplane. The sport pilot stated that, about 10 miles southwest of the airport, they could clearly see the airport lights and began a visual descent from 5,500 ft mean sea level. During the descent, the airplane collided with terrain about 5 miles from the airport and came to a stop. The sport pilot egressed and called for emergency services. Postaccident examination of the airframe and engine revealed no mechanical anomalies that would have precluded normal operation. Visual meteorological conditions were present in the area with visibility of 10 miles. Astronomical information showed that moonset had occurred about 3.5 hours before the accident. The accident occurred in a very sparsely populated area of high desert, with no ground lighting. The terrain and dark night conditions would have prevented both pilots from maintaining a visual reference to the terrain. Examination of the airplane's Electronic Flight Information System (EFIS) revealed that the aural terrain warning function was not enabled, though the system still depicted a moving map display with terrain information. If the aural terrain warning function had been enabled, the pilots would have been alerted, and action could have been taken in sufficient time to maintain terrain clearance.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record.