ASN Wikibase Occurrence # 13536
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| Date: | Saturday 20 December 1975 |
| Time: | 07:25 |
| Type: |  Piper PA-30-160 Twin Comanche |
| Owner/operator: | Raymond A Kern |
| Registration: | N7785Y |
| MSN: | 30-868 |
| Fatalities: | Fatalities: 2 / Occupants: 2 |
| Aircraft damage: | Destroyed |
| Category: | Accident |
| Location: | E. of Indiana Highway 39, Monrovia, Hendricks-Morgan County, Indiana -
 United States of America
|
| Phase: | Unknown |
| Nature: | Private |
| Departure airport: | Eagle Creek Airpark, Monrovia, Indiana (EYE/KEYE) |
| Tulsa International Airport, Tulsa Oklahoma (TUL/KTUL) | |
| Investigating agency: | NTSB |
| Confidence Rating: |  Accident investigation report completed and information captured |
Written off (destroyed) December 20, 1975 when crashed at Monrovia, Monroe Township, Morgan County, Indiana (at approximate Coordinates: 39°34′46″N 86°28′49″W) after in flight break up of the airframe: existing icing conditions not forecast. Air Traffic Control Center & tower personnel did not relay prior reports to FAA. According to the following contemporary newspaper report (see link #4):
"Indianapolis Couple Killed In Crash Of Plane Near Monrovia
STAR STATE REPORT
Monrovia, Indiana
A light aircraft which dropped off the Weir Cook Municipal Airport radarscope about 7:30 a.m. yesterday crashed to earth near here, killing an Indianapolis chemist, Raymond Kern, 57 and his wife, Joanna. The plane, a twin-engine Piper Comanche, had departed from the Eagle Creek Airpark about 10 minutes before. The Kerns had filed a flight plan indicating Tulsa, Oklahoma, was their destination.
STATE POLICE said an employee of the Blue and White service station at the I-70-Indiana 39 interchange told them she saw the aircraft on fire and going down about 7:30 a.m. The wreckage was located in a field a few hundred yards east of Indiana Highway 39 near the Hendricks-Morgan county line in Hendricks County. State police said they found one body in the wreckage and the other body about 100 feet from the fuselage.
Both engines were embedded deeply in the ground and wreckage was scattered along a path 400 feet long. Police were checking a report that the plane clipped a tree as it attempted to make a landing.
KERN HAD BEEN an employee of Link Belt Division of FMC Corporation since 1955. He became assistant director of research in 1967. His wife was a music teacher in the Washington Township school system. Kern was described as an experienced pilot, and Federal Aviation Administration officials with whom he filed his flight plan said he was qualified to fly in the cloudy weather.
James M. Gordon, a friend of the family and Kern's supervisor at Link Belt, said the Kerns were beginning a vacation and were going first to Tulsa and then to Riverside California, to visit their son, Larry. Mrs. Tom Kirkitsis, owner of the property on which the plane crashed, said she heard one of the plane's engines running, but that it suddenly went dead. Then she heard a thud, she said"
In addition, according to the following excerpt from the official NTSB report into the accident:
"PROBABLE CAUSE(S)
PILOT IN COMMAND - IMPROPER IN-FLIGHT DECISIONS OR PLANNING - SPATIAL DISORIENTATION - EXCEEDED DESIGNED STRESS LIMITS OF AIRCRAFT
MISCELLANEOUS ACTS,CONDITIONS - OVERLOAD FAILURE
FACTOR(S)
PERSONNEL - WEATHER PERSONNEL: INCORRECT WEATHER FORECAST - TRAFFIC CONTROL PERSONNEL: FAILURE TO ADVISE OF UNSAFE WEATHER CONDITIONS
WEATHER - ICING CONDITIONS-INCLUDES SLEET,FREEZING RAIN,ETC.
MISCELLANEOUS ACTS,CONDITIONS - AIRFRAME ICE - SEPARATION IN FLIGHT
WEATHER BRIEFING - BRIEFED BY FLIGHT SERVICE PERSONNEL, BY PHONE
WEATHER FORECAST - FORECAST COMPLETETELY ERRONEOUS"
Registration N7785Y cancelled by the FAA on March 8, 1976
Accident investigation:
|
Sources:
1. NTSB Identification: CHI76AC040 at https://www.ntsb.gov/_layouts/ntsb.aviation/brief.aspx?ev_id=51363&key=0
2. FAA: http://registry.faa.gov/aircraftinquiry/NNum_Results.aspx?omni=Home-N-Number&nNumberTxt=7785Y
3. http://planecrashmap.com/plane/in/N7785Y/
4. The Indianapolis Star, Indianapolis, Indiana, Sunday, December 21, 1975 page 10 at https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/105853002/
Revision history:
| Date/time | Contributor | Updates |
|---|---|---|
| 25-Feb-2008 12:00 | ASN archive | Added |
| 18-Mar-2017 00:56 | Dr.John Smith | Updated [Aircraft type, Operator, Location, Phase, Nature, Departure airport, Destination airport, Source, Narrative] |
| 18-Mar-2017 00:59 | Dr.John Smith | Updated [Departure airport, Destination airport] |
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