Cites Continued VFR Flight Into IFR Conditions

The NTSB has released its probable cause report from an accident that occurred in March, 2014 that fatally injured air show pilot Jim "Fang" Maroney.

Maroney's  DHC-1 Super Chipmunk went down en route to New Smyrna Beach, FL for the annual Beach Balloon and Sky Fest. Maroney was to have been one of the featured performers at the event. The 58-year-old well-known aerobatic pilot had been on the air show circuit for 38 years. He had also been a Navy Top Gun pilot, and had advised actor Tom Cruise while making the movie of the same name.

According to the probable cause report, on the morning of the accident, Maroney contacted a flight service station for a weather briefing for a VFR flight from Wisconsin to Georgia. The briefer told Maroney that VFR flight was not recommended from southern Kentucky through Tennessee and into north Georgia. He also stated that there was an Airmet for mountain obscuration for the same area until 1400. Toward the conclusion of the briefing, Maroney indicated that he would probably spend the night in Kentucky.

The pilot flew to Indiana, refueled, and departed about 1209. When Maroney did not arrive at his destination, a search was initiated, and the wreckage was found in mountainous terrain in the Cherokee National Forest.

The aircraft heading at impact was toward the northwest (his destination was to the southeast). Damage to broken trees within the wreckage debris path was indicative of a near-level aircraft attitude at impact. Although Maroney had extensive experience in the accident airplane and was an airline pilot with a major air carrier, the airplane was not equipped for flight in instrument conditions. No distress calls were received from Maroney before the accident.

An examination of the airframe and engine did not reveal evidence of a preexisting mechanical malfunction or failure. Although no eyewitnesses to the accident were found, one local resident reported that the mountain tops were obscured at the time of the accident. "It is likely that Maroney attempted to cross the mountains below the cloud cover and, after he realized that he could not continue in visual conditions, he attempted to exit the weather, and the airplane impacted the mountain," the report said.

The National Transportation Safety Board determined that the probable cause of this accident to be the pilot’s continued visual flight rules flight into instrument meteorological conditions, which resulted in controlled flight into terrain.

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