Aircraft Accident Investigation Report

7 1.0 Factual Information 1.1 History of the flight N101KA History of the Flight On November 10, 2016, about 1:35pm local time, a Textron Aviation Inc. (formerly Cessna) aircraft, model 172N, registration N101KA operated by Caribbean Aviation Training Center, impacted terrain after loss of control following takeoff from runway 14 at the Tinson Pen Aerodrome. The student pilot, flight instructor and rear passenger (also a student pilot) were fatally injured. Visual Meteorological Conditions existed at the time, and a VFR 1 flight plan had been filed. The flight was operated under the provision of the Civil Aviation Regulations, the Ninth Schedule – Approved Training Organizations. At approximately 1:27pm, Air Traffic Control (ATC) received flight plan details from the aircraft, there were three (3) persons on board, three (3) hours of fuel, destined for the Old Harbour Bay training area with a total estimated flight time of one (1) hour. Prior to takeoff, ATC passed information to the airplane regarding aerodrome traffic, surface winds, altimeter setting and also information regarding drone 2 operation observed on the premises in the vicinity of runway 14 and taxiway Alpha. At approximately 1:31pm the aircraft departed the runway 14, there was no further communication between the aircraft and ATC after takeoff. The Flight Instructor occupied the right front seat and one of the Student Pilot’s occupied the left front seat, while the other Student Pilot was in the rear passenger seat. Ground witnesses observed the airplane take off from the aerodrome via runway 14. The witnesses, one of whom was a licensed pilot, stated that they saw the aircraft rotate abeam the Sandals hangar, shortly after take-off, a noticeable change in the sound of the engine was heard, which sounded like a partial power loss, after pitching up, it was observed that the nose of the aircraft was pitched downward as if trying to gain airspeed down the runway. It then pitched back up and started to climb slowly above the tree line, the aircraft began to turn to the left, that is toward the North, at approximately 200 feet above ground level, the airplane was observed to spin 3 and descend to the ground in a near vertical flight path. The impact occurred approximately 1,870 feet from the hard surface at departure end of runway 14 in a residential neighborhood. The absence of damage to the house on the property where the aircraft came to rest, the orientation of the aircraft, as well as the absence of any horizontal drag markings at the area of impact 1 Visual Flight Rules 2 Unmanned Aerial Vehicle 33 A spin is a special category of stall resulting in autorotation about the vertical axis and a shallow, rotating downward path.