Cessna 551 N740JB accident near Stillwater, Oklahoma

Probable cause

The pilot's loss of control for undetermined reasons.

NTSB analysis

The pilot reported that after leveling off at 16,000 feet with the autopilot engaged, he began to review his charts preparing for landing. When he went back to a visual scan of the instruments, he noted that the flight director was flagged off and that both the pilot and co-pilot attitude indicators were off. The pilot declared an emergency with air traffic control, reduced the throttles to idle, and pulled back on the controls. After the airplane came out of the bottom of the clouds and the pilot regained visual contact with the ground, the airplane was in a 60-degree left turn at approximately 80 knots of airspeed. After the pilot regained control, the flight director and all instruments began working again. The pilot then re-engaged the autopilot and continued to his destination, where he landed without further incident.

Examination of the flight director system, gyros, and attitude indicators at the aircraft manufacturer’s facilities failed to identify a failure or malfunction with the flight instruments.

Text from the NTSB. Open the NTSB docket for CEN09LA281 for the full record.