King Air down near FYV

Crash happened about 20 miles north of my home airport. Conditions were MVFR with puffy cumulus yesterday. It appears he was maybe flying either the LDA 34 or RNAV 34 and turning inbound from the east. ATC audio playback is all static so can't tell. Pretty benign conditions for a rated and current instrument pilot. Since he was older maybe a medical event was at play? Hopefully we have answers soon.

https://flightaware.com/live/flight/N522MJ
 
KFYV 171753Z 08003KT 10SM SCT015 OVC021 19/15 A2997 RMK AO2 SLP139 60001 T01940150 10200 20172 58004

KFYV 171653Z 34004KT 10SM OVC018 19/15 A2998 RMK AO2 SLP142 T01940150

Everything looked very stable until the turn onto final. Then it was a 2700 fpm descent, followed by a 2700 fpm climb, then a brief 7000 fpm dive, with the commensurate speed changes for each, until the signal was lost less than a minute later.

Whatever happened to destabilize the aircraft, it happened quickly.
 
Also strange, there were at least 2 helo's in area very quickly searching for a good bit . Seems odd it took a bit to locate. No post crash fire ? IDK..
 
I hate that insurance lately has me trained to look at the pilot's age first. I hope they find something else to pin this on. Those conditions seem well within the abilities of a one-up KA90.
 
NTSB Final Report N522MJ

The National Transportation Safety Board determines the probable cause(s) of this accident to be:

The pilot’s poor preflight decision to depart into known instrument meteorological conditions (IMC) without a functional autopilot system, which resulted in spatial disorientation and his failure to maintain aircraft control while flying in IMC during the instrument approach. Contributing to the accident was the pilot’s self-imposed pressure to conduct the flight.
 
AquaLand said:
…The pilot’s poor preflight decision to depart into known instrument meteorological conditions (IMC) without a functional autopilot system, which resulted in spatial disorientation…..
Click to expand...

Say WHAAAAAT?

So the ntsb’s theory is that IF you fly in IMC without an AP you WILL get spatially disorientateded?
 
eman1200 said:
Say WHAAAAAT?

So the ntsb’s theory is that IF you fly in IMC without an AP you WILL get spatially disorientateded?
Click to expand...
Was literally thinking the same thing!! Maybe he didn’t know the AP was inop? But based on the writing that doesn’t seem accurate. Spatial disorientation and IMC, pilot got behind the airplane, that’s it.
 
eman1200 said:
Say WHAAAAAT?

So the ntsb’s theory is that IF you fly in IMC without an AP you WILL get spatially disorientateded?
Click to expand...
Nowhere in the linked final report does the NTSB proffer such a theory. Here is a relevant excerpt from the final report:

"Based on the available information, the pilot likely was not using the autopilot due to the known issue with the system and, as a result, was hand flying the airplane during the instrument approach. The pilot likely was accustomed to flying the airplane with the automation that the autopilot provided rather than by hand in single-pilot instrument meteorological conditions (IMC). Based on the recorded flight path [my emphasis added], it is likely that the pilot became spatially disoriented and lost control of the airplane while intercepting the final approach course for the instrument approach. In addition, the pilot allowed his self-imposed pressure to influence his decision to complete the flight in less-than-ideal weather conditions without a functional autopilot."
 
AquaLand said:
Nowhere in the linked final report does the NTSB proffer such a theory. Here is a relevant excerpt from the final report:

"Based on the available information, the pilot likely was not using the autopilot due to the known issue with the system and, as a result, was hand flying the airplane during the instrument approach. The pilot likely was accustomed to flying the airplane with the automation that the autopilot provided rather than by hand in single-pilot instrument meteorological conditions (IMC). Based on the recorded flight path [my emphasis added], it is likely that the pilot became spatially disoriented and lost control of the airplane while intercepting the final approach course for the instrument approach. In addition, the pilot allowed his self-imposed pressure to influence his decision to complete the flight in less-than-ideal weather conditions without a functional autopilot."
Click to expand...
I quoted YOUR post where you said:

"The National Transportation Safety Board determines the probable cause(s) of this accident to be:

The pilot’s poor preflight decision to depart into known instrument meteorological conditions (IMC) without a functional autopilot system, which resulted in spatial disorientation and his failure to maintain aircraft control while flying in IMC during the instrument approach. Contributing to the accident was the pilot’s self-imposed pressure to conduct the flight."
 
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