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.