CEN24FA312

An off-airport landing in a soybean field for reasons that could not be determined. Contributing to the severity of the pilot’s injuries and airplane damage was a fire that occurred at an unknown time.

The pilot was on a multi-leg cross country flight after purchasing the airplane. A friend of the pilot stated that the pilot landed the airplane at an airport on the first evening of the flight and was planning to continue west the next morning. A fuel receipt confirmed that the pilot purchased 16.34 gallons of fuel at that airport. Two days after the flight was supposed to arrive at the final destination, the friend reported the pilot missing. The airplane was not equipped with ADS-B, and it did not have a transponder, so flight track data was not available for the investigation. On the evening that the pilot was reported missing, the airplane wreckage was found in a soybean field about 87 nm west of the last known fuel stop. The main wreckage exhibited heavy thermal damage to the engine compartment, cockpit, and fuselage. The investigation was unable to determine if the fire started before or after impact. Examination of the airframe indicated that there were no preimpact mechanical malfunctions or failures that would have precluded normal operation. The signatures on the propeller blades indicated that the propeller was likely not rotating at the time of impact and the engine was likely not producing power. Due to thermal damage, rust, and corrosion, the engine and magnetos could not be functionally tested. The investigation was unable to determine whether the engine lost power or if the pilot shut down the engine before impact with the ground. The header tank and left and right fuel tanks were burned and compromised, during the accident sequence, so the fuel amount at the time of the accident could not be verified. However, based upon the fuel receipts, the pilot likely filled the airplane to its full 24-gallon capacity before departing. The airplane’s emergency locator transmitter (ELT) was not transmitting on emergency frequency 121.5 MHz at the time the airplane was located, nor was there evidence of an ELT transmitting in the area in the days before the airplane was located. The airplane was found about an hour after search and rescue was deployed and three days after the accident likely occurred. The pilot was found 18 ft away from the main wreckage and there was a 2 ft wide by 18 ft long trail of vegetation displacement between the main wreckage and his location. The vegetation displacement indicated the pilot was likely alive after the accident and either walked or crawled away from the wreckage and was not ejected upon impact. According to the pilot’s autopsy report, his cause of death was thermal burns. His autopsy identified thermal burns over 80% of his body surface, without evidence of smoke inhalation or airway thermal injury. The autopsy report noted there was no fatal traumatic injury or lethal natural disease found. Based on available evidence, the possibility cannot be excluded that the pilot might have survived long enough after the crash to be transported to a burn center had rescue not been delayed. Regardless, his burns were very likely to be fatal even with specialized care. A widely used clinical burn mortality prediction tool predicts little to no hope of survival for a 77-year-old patient with 80% body surface area burns. The pilot’s autopsy identified cardiovascular disease, including coronary artery disease and an old area of stroke. This cardiovascular disease was associated with increased risk of an impairing or incapacitating cardiovascular event. There was no autopsy evidence that such an event occurred, but such an event does not leave reliable autopsy evidence if it occurs immediately before death. The old stroke affecting a small area of the brain may or may not have had significant symptoms. The pilot had spine disease and a history of left leg weakness that had affected his ability to operate rudder pedals and foot brakes. His leg weakness would not be expected to directly affect control of an airplane without foot-operated controls, such as the accident airplane. However, chronic pain may have performance-impairing effects. Postmortem toxicology results indicated that the pilot had used the medication gabapentin, which the pilot’s daughter indicated the pilot was taking for back and leg pain. The pilot might have been experiencing associated impairing medication effects such as psychomotor or cognitive slowing at the time of the accident, but the magnitude of any such effects could not reliably be determined from the measured gabapentin level alone. Based upon ground scars and damage to the airplane, it is likely that the pilot attempted a forced landing to the field. The investigation was unable to determine why the pilot performed an off-airport landing in the soybean field. The airplane’s lack of ADS-B and transponder, and the failure of the ELT to activate as designed, delayed the rescue response. However, it is unlikely that the timing of the rescue response affected the survivability of the accident.

The pilot was a 77-year-old male and did not hold a pilot certificate. He surrendered his commercial pilot certificate in 2012. The pilot was required to have at least a sport pilot certificate to operate the accident airplane. His last FAA medical examination was for a second-class medical in June 2016. At the time of that examination, the pilot reported his civil flight experience included 5,001 total hours and 38 hours in last six months and that he was not taking any medication. The pilot purchased the airplane on August 6, 2024, the day before the accident. Logbook records revealed that the engine was overhauled in August 2023 and reinstalled in the airplane in October 2023. An annual inspection of the airframe, propeller, and engine was performed in October 2023. The previous owner made copies of logbook records dating back to 2016 and provided them for the investigation; however, the complete set of logbooks were destroyed in the accident. The mechanic who performed the most recent annual inspection confirmed that Airworthiness Directive (AD) 2002-16-04 was complied with. The actions specified by this AD were intended to prevent failure of the fuel line fittings or the gascolator and thus a lack of fuel to the engine. According to the airplane’s pilot’s operating handbook, the airplane could hold 9 gallons of fuel in each wing tank and 6 gallons of fuel in the header tank for a total of 24 gallons of fuel. The airplane burned about 5.4 gallons of fuel per hour at cruise power. Normal operating speeds were 50 to 114 mph (43 to 99 kts). Logbook records also revealed that, at the time of the last annual inspection, the ELT was tested and a new ELT battery pack (good until November 2025) was installed. According to the mechanic who performed the annual inspection, the ELT was a Narco-10 ELT. The Narco-10 was an FAA Technical Standard Order (TSO) C91 ELT. Since the TSO for C91 ELTs was issued in 1971, unsatisfactory performance associated with the TSO C91 ELT units included dislodgement from aircraft because of impact, inaccurate position determination because of wide frequency tolerance, inadequate requirements for case construction, and inadequate inertia switch design specifications that led to activation failure. In 1985, TSO C91a was issued to correct these deficiencies. However, the FAA permitted TSO C91 compliant ELTs to remain in use if they were tested annually. An autopsy was performed by a forensic pathologist at the McLean County Coroner’s Office Regional Autopsy Facility, Bloomington, Illinois, under the authority of the Logan County Coroner. According to the autopsy report, the pilot’s cause of death was thermal burns. The report indicated that the pilot had burns over 80% of his body without soot or thermal injury identified in the airway. The autopsy identified coronary artery disease, with an area of 65% narrowing of the left anterior descending coronary artery, and 30% narrowing of the right coronary artery. The pilot’s autopsy also showed evidence of a prior stroke that affected a small area of the brain in the left basal ganglia. Severe degenerative joint disease of the spine was also identified. Hemorrhages, of the type that may be seen with hypothermia or certain other physiological stressors, were found within the lining of the stomach. A toxicological report revealed positive results for gabapentin, ibuprofen, and salicylic acid in blood and urine. The gabapentin level in heart blood was 7750 ng/mL. Gabapentin is a prescription medication commonly used to treat nerve pain. It may also be used to treat certain types of seizures, restless legs syndrome, and other conditions. Gabapentin may cause sedation and dizziness and can impair coordination and performance of tasks such as operating motor vehicles and heavy machinery. The drug typically carries a warning that users may not be able to accurately assess how sleepy or impaired it makes them, and that they should not operate motor vehicles or complex machinery until they have gained enough experience to determine whether the drug impairs their ability to do so. Ibuprofen is an anti-inflammatory medication that is widely available over the counter and commonly used to treat pain and fever. Salicylic acid is the primary active metabolite of aspirin, another widely available over-the-counter medication that can be used to control pain and fever, as well as to reduce cardiovascular risk. Salicylic acid is also a metabolite of some other drugs and is used as a topical skin exfoliant in a variety of retail products. Ibuprofen and aspirin/salicylic acid are not generally considered impairing. On August 7, 2024, about 0800 central daylight time, an Ercoupe 415-C airplane, N3093H, was destroyed when it was involved in an accident near Elkhart, Illinois. The pilot was fatally injured. The airplane was operated as a Title 14 Code of Federal Regulations Part 91 personal flight. On August 6, 2024, the airplane departed Roben-Hood Airport (RQB), Big Rapids, Michigan, about 1700 and landed at Vermilion Regional Airport, Danville, Illinois, (DNV) later that evening. A fuel receipt confirmed that the pilot filled the airplane with 16.34 gallons of 100LL aviation fuel at DNV. A friend of the pilot stated that the pilot called him on the evening of August 6 and told him that he was spending the night at DNV and would depart the morning of August 7 to embark on a multi-leg cross country flight that would terminate on August 8 in Colorado Springs, Colorado. When the pilot did not arrive in Colorado Springs, the friend reported him missing on August 10, and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) issued an Alert Notice. The airplane was not equipped with ADSB, nor did it have a transponder. The Civil Air Patrol (CAP) Cell Phone Forensics Team reported that the last cell phone ping from the pilot’s cell phone was near Mount Pulaski, Illinois, at 0759 on August 7. An Illinois CAP aircrew was deployed from DuPage Airport (DPA), West Chicago, Illinois, to the Mount Pulaski area on August 10 and located the airplane wreckage near Elkhart, Illinois, about 11 nm west of Mount Pulaski and 87 nm west of DNV. At the time of the last annual inspection, the airplane was equipped with an ELT that transmitted on the emergency frequency of 121.5 MHz, but there was no ELT transmitting on that frequency at the time the airplane was located, nor was there evidence of an ELT transmitting in that area in the days before the airplane was located. The airplane was found in a soybean field. The debris field was on an east to west heading and was about 140 ft long. The main wreckage came to rest upright on a heading of about 030°, was burned, and consisted of the cockpit, fuselage, right landing gear, left wing, a portion of the right wing, empennage, engine, and propeller. The propeller was still attached to the crankshaft at the propeller flange and was largely intact. One propeller blade was straight and the other propeller blade was thermally damaged. The paint on the tip of the thermally damaged propeller blade melted, and the blade had a slight bend to it. Control cable continuity was established from the control column to the right rudder and right elevator. The left elevator and left rudder were burned and could not be functionally tested. The right elevator contained the elevator trim tab, and it was in the full down (nose-up) position. The left and right ailerons were still attached to their respective wings, and control continuity was established from the control column to both ailerons. The fuel caps for the left and right fuel tanks were firmly attached. The right tank and the header tank were burned, and the left tank was compromised, so the fuel amount at the time of the accident could not be verified. The fuel shut-off valve that would have been located under the instrument panel could not be found in the wreckage, so its position could not be determined. Th