Cessna 150F N8110S accident near Wilder, Tennessee

Probable cause

The student pilot’s decision to continue the visual flight rules flight into instrument meteorological conditions at night, which resulted in controlled flight into terrain.

NTSB analysis

The student pilot was on the second leg of a long visual flight rules cross-country flight. The pilot departed shortly after the end of civil twilight and on a night where no lunar illumination was present. The pilot had not filed a flight plan and there was no evidence that he had obtained an official weather briefing from a source that would have logged that contact. After departure, the pilot flew over a town that contained significant cultural lighting and highway, flying parallel to a road for about 1 mile. He then turned away from the town and roughly toward the destination airport, over a sparsely populated area covered with dense forest and rising terrain.

The dark night, in addition to the generally cloudy conditions and limited ground lighting along the flight path, would have made it difficult for the pilot to visually recognize the rising terrain. As the pilot continued toward this area of diminished visual reference, he encountered a band of light rain showers, which in addition to further restricting visibility, had the potential for updrafts and associated turbulence. Given these conditions, it is likely that the pilot was flying in instrument meteorological conditions (IMC) for the last 4 minutes of the flight. Postaccident examination of the wreckage at the accident site revealed no evidence of any preimpact mechanical malfunctions or failures of the airframe or engine. The relatively straight flight path for the final portion of the flight that was observed via ADS-B, the length of the wreckage path at the accident site, and the damage observed to trees along that wreckage path, were all consistent with controlled flight into terrain.

The results of postaccident toxicological testing indicated that the pilot had used the prescription medication lamotrigine. While it is possible that his cognitive and psychomotor performance might have been impaired by the effects of the medication, no more-specific conclusion about pilot impairment can be drawn from the reviewed medical evidence alone. Based on the available information, the student pilot’s decision to continue the long cross-country flight at night, without obtaining a preflight weather briefing or having an apparent awareness of approaching precipitation, and without filing a flight plan, was indicative of poor judgement.

Text from the NTSB. Open the NTSB docket for ERA25FA037 for the full record.