Rockwell Grand Commander 690

The pilot entered the left-hand traffic pattern at an uncontrolled airport on a dark moonless night. Witnesses reported observing the airplane in a left descending turn. As the airplane turned onto the base leg, its left bank angle suddenly became steep. The airplane rapidly descended until colliding with level desert terrain 1.63 nm from runway 30's threshold. There were no ground reference lights in the accident site area. An examination of the airplane structure, control systems, engines, and propellers did not reveal any evidence of preimpact malfunctions or failures. Signatures consistent with engine power were found in both the engines and the propellers. The wreckage examination revealed that the airplane descended into the terrain in a left wing and nose low attitude. Fragmentation evidence, consisting of the left navigation light lens and left propeller spinner, was found near the initial point of impact. The wreckage was found principally distributed along a 307- to 310-degree bearing, over a 617- foot-long path. The bearing between the initial point of impact and the runway threshold was 319 degrees. The pilot's total logged experience in the accident airplane was 52 hours, of which only 1.6 hours were at night. The pilot was familiar with the area, but he had made only two nighttime landings within the preceding 90 days. Review of the recorded ATC communications tapes did not reveal any evidence of pilot impairment during voice communications with the pilot.

The airplane collided with an airport boundary fence during an aborted landing. The pilot made a normal approach following the visual approach slope indicator (VASI) with gear down and full flaps and touched down just past the numbers and began to decelerate. The pilot selected reverse thrust with both engines. As he added power to decelerate, the airplane suddenly veered to the left and off the runway when the right engine did not go into reverse thrust. He deselected reverse thrust and aligned the airplane with the runway. He was approaching the end of the runway at high speed and elected to attempt a takeoff. The airplane went off the end of the runway onto smooth grass. The pilot rotated the airplane, but the airplane collided with an airport boundary fence and came to rest in a field. In a post accident examination, when the power levers were placed in the full reverse position, the left fuel control measured 4°, while the right measured 0°. The left pitch control measured 10°, while the right measured 0°; the controls should have read 0°. A controls engineer determined that during landing, there would be a 10° propeller pitch control (PPC) angle mismatch, which would be about 2.5° of BETA angle. With matched levers, there would be asymmetric reverse thrust with the left engine lower in torque. This would result in the airplane turning towards the left if both propellers had gone into reverse pitch.

The pilot, sole on board, was completing a delivery flight from South Africa to the US via Luanda and São Tomé. Upon landing at São Tomé Airport, the left main gear collapsed. The aircraft slid on its belly for few dozen metres and came to rest. The pilot was uninjured.

The flight was operating into the Yakima airport at night during the period the airport operates as non-towered. Some witnesses reported the aircraft initially appeared lower than normal and that it descended and impacted the ground at a steep angle, and some witnesses reported an abrupt entry into the descent. The aircraft crashed 2.2 nautical miles east of the runway threshold, slightly right of the localizer course The pilot was 'cleared for approach' by air traffic control (ATC) and he subsequently initiated an instrument landing system (ILS) approach to runway 27. The last radar position showed the aircraft approximately on the localizer, at glide slope intercept altitude, 9 nautical miles east of the airport. Three minutes after the last radar position, the pilot reported to ATC he had broken out and had the airport in sight, and canceled instrument flight rules (IFR). ATC then terminated service and approved a frequency change.. Ceiling was 1,500 feet overcast with 6 miles visibility in mist, with no significant icing forecast. No evidence of mechanical problems was found; however, much of the aircraft was consumed by an intense post-crash fire.

While approaching Joinville Airport at an altitude of 7,000 feet, the crew canceled his IFR flight plan and continued under VFR mode. Few minutes later, the crew encountered atmospheric turbulences and lost control of the aircraft that crashed near Gavura, about 24 km northwest of Joinville Airport. The aircraft was destroyed and all five occupants were killed.

On final approach to Warsaw-Okecie Airport runway 33 by night, the pilot reported engine problems when the aircraft lost height and crashed in the district of Mysiadło, about six km short of runway threshold. All four occupants were injured and there were no victims on the ground. The aircraft was destroyed. It was reported that both engines lost power on approach, maybe after being taken over by frost. At the time of the accident, icing conditions were present in Warsaw.

The airplane impacted terrain approx 14 miles from the destination during a descent. According to radar data and meteorological information, the airplane descended from 16,700 feet to 3,700 feet agl through clouds and icing conditions. During the descent, the airplane decelerated from 268 kts to 92 kts ground speed. The pilot reported to approach that he 'broke out' of the clouds at 5,400 feet. He subsequently informed approach that he had accumulated 'some clear and rime ice' during the descent. 13 seconds later the pilot made a distress call and stated, 'we're in trouble, we're going down.' The last radar track showed the airplane descending through 3,700 feet at a ground speed of 92 kts. A witness reported he observed that the airplane 'appeared to be doing tricks', and 'then headed straight down in a spin.' An airmet for icing conditions was in effect along the airplane's route of flight. Also, there were several pilot reports of icing encountered in the area of the accident. The pilot did not request a weather briefing prior to, or during the flight.