Helena

The pilot stated that on the morning of the accident he filled both wing fuel tanks to full. After takeoff, he climbed to his planned cruise altitude of 24,000 ft mean sea level (msl). While en route to his destination, the pilot reported that the left engine experienced a flame-out. The pilot opted to divert from the originally planned destination and descended. When the airplane was about 7,900 ft msl, the pilot reported that the right engine experienced a loss of power and that he was not going to be able to make it to the airport. Shortly thereafter, the airplane collided with trees and the airplane came to rest with the right wing and empennage severed from the fuselage.

This accident occurred during a night, ILS approach to runway 27 in IMC. The aircraft collided with a mountain 12 nm east-southeast of the airport while turning inbound to intercept the localizer course. Investigation revealed that one VOR receiver was set on the destination ILS frequency, the second VOR was set on an en route VOR 51 nm west of the destination airport, and the DME radio, a separate transceiver, was set on the destination DME transmitter. The frequencies of the en route VOR and the destination VOR were 117.1 and 117.7, respectively. The outbound course for the ILS approach procedure was 088° and the accident site was located on the 088 radial of the en route VOR. Investigation also revealed that the pic was occupying the right front seat and an experienced pilot who was not current in this aircraft was occupying the left seat. The second VOR receiver control head was located in the lower right portion of the instrument panel, in a location where the selected frequency was difficult to read. All three occupants were killed.