Amateur-built CH601 N322JL accident near Overgaard, Arizona

Probable cause

The pilot’s failure to monitor the airport’s visual approach path indicator during the final approach to the upsloping runway, which resulted in a low approach path and impact with terrain.

NTSB analysis

The pilot and pilot-rated passenger were completing the second leg of a multileg flight. Flight data indicated that the final approach was below the glideslope for the runway and the airplane’s airspeed was above the stall limit. During the approach, the airplane impacted a tall tree about 1,500 ft from the runway threshold, the roof of a house, and a second tree before coming to rest in a taxi area between houses. A postaccident examination of the airframe and engine revealed no evidence of preimpact mechanical malfunctions or failures that would have precluded normal operation.

Although the pilot should have been familiar with the runway characteristics given that he had a hangar near the airpark and had flown into the airpark before, it is likely that the upsloping runway and paved surfaces before the displaced threshold gave the pilot the visual illusion that the airplane was at a higher altitude than it actually was and that the pilot thus flew a lower approach. Although a visual approach path indicator was positioned left of the runway threshold, the pilot likely did not monitor the indicator during the final approach.

Text from the NTSB. Open the NTSB docket for WPR19FA026 for the full record.