The private pilot and flight instructor were performing a cross-country instrument flight rules training flight at night in the Cessna 172. While en route, they diverted from their planned destination to a non-towered airport near Elizabethtown, Kentucky, to refuel.
After landing at the diversion airport, the pilot attempted to navigate via taxiways toward the ramp environment. As the taxi progressed toward the ramp, the blue taxiway edge lights ended, and a “significant glare” from the hangar lights directly ahead obscured the pilot’s forward view through the dirty windscreen.
Believing that they had entered the ramp area, the pilot turned toward the fueling area, but the airplane then departed the paved surface onto grass and slid into a ditch.
The airplane sustained substantial damage to the left wing and horizontal stabilizer.
Had the pilot and flight instructor elected to discontinue taxiing the airplane after losing sight of the ground ahead due to the darkness and glare, it is likely that the accident would not have occurred.
Probable Cause: The pilot’s decision to continue the taxi without visual reference to the surface, due to his vision being impaired by darkness and glare, which resulted in the airplane’s departure from the paved surface and impact with a ditch. Contributing was the flight instructor’s inadequate monitoring of the pilot.
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This October 2022 accident report is provided by the National Transportation Safety Board. Published as an educational tool, it is intended to help pilots learn from the misfortunes of others.
Sans Chart Supplement (A/F-D), the lazy bum in the right seat should have dismounted and marshalled the aircraft to the pumps instead of doing a “by guess and by golly”
The airport diagram in the Chart Supplement shows the taxiway system. The ramp was either the second or third turn off of the parallel from their exit point from the runway. The diagram shows the first turn which they took as an isolated taxiway to the hangars. All of the current electronic applications on the internet and onboard equipment are nice, but I’d guess may lead to a less than thorough understanding and use of the information that’s been in the Chart Supplement for a long time.
You have GOT to be kidding! Forrest Gump said it best, “stupid is as stupid does”
Right on, Felipe. Get there itis? Too lazy to clean the windshield? Can’t take time to consult the Chart Supplement? Well… Another airplane bites the dust an up go the insurance premiums. They’re lucky they escaped with their lives. Somewhere in Florida there are cases wherein such a mistake takes the airplane into a parallel water-filled drainage ditch. When the plane occupants escape the airplane, they’re bitten and killed by water moccasins living in the ditch. Oops… Too late to correct those initial planning mistakes. RIP.
Reminds me of when I lived in California and drove south to San Diego in the morning. There were regular dense fogs over I-5 since it was within walking distance of the Pacific Ocean. There were legendary 100-car pileups at that time because rather than slow down and perhaps pull over for a few minutes, drivers would just head blindly (literally) into the fog at full speed regardless of the obvious inherent danger. Yep! Stupid is as stupid does. And there’s plenty of it to go around.