Plane Had History Of PFD Issues

In its Probable Cause report on a January 2005 fatal accident in Florida involving a Cirrus SR22, the National Transportation Safety Board ruled this week that several factors -- including pilot disorientation, and an unspecified avionics failure -- contributed to the accident.

As Aero-News reported last year, pilot Gerald "Jerry" Ballard was flying his SR22 on January 15, 2005 in marginal VFR-to-IFR conditions over Coconut Creek, FL when he told ATC he was experiencing problems with the plane's avionics.

A transcript of communications between the pilot and ATC also shows Ballard had misinterpreted a series of ATC communications meant for another aircraft... and seemed confused and disoriented.

The NTSB says that shortly after Ballard reported the avionics problem, his aircraft dropped 1,500 feet in 12 seconds, and then climbed 1,000 feet in the next 12 seconds. Witnesses on the ground reported hearing the sound of an aircraft engine straining, as if it were performing aerobatic maneuvers.

The aircraft impacted a house moments after Ballard's last transmission to ATC -- "I'm losin', I'm losin' it again here."

Ballard did not tell controllers the nature of his avionics problem, and it is unclear how much of a factor it may have played in the accident.

NTSB records show the accident aircraft was on its third Primary Flight Display, with approximately 98 hours on the airframe.

Ballard's logbook showed 483 hours of flight time logged, with 405 hours between two SR22s. He had 15 hours of actual IFR time logged, with 61 hours of simulated IFR.

Ballard had logged 0.2 hours actual IFR time one week before the accident, including an instrument approach. A flight instructor interviewed by the NTSB told investigators Ballard had practiced several partial-panel approaches, without the PFD (relying on the backup instrumentation below the PFD, shown below) with no apparent difficulty.

The board ruled the primary cause of the accident was "[t]he pilot's failure to maintain aircraft control, which resulted in an uncontrolled descent to the ground." Contributing to the crash were "an avionics failure, pilot disorientation, and instrument meteorological conditions."

"A factor in the severity of the impact was the pilot's failure to deploy the airplane's onboard parachute system," the NTSB adds.

FMI: Read The Probable Cause Report