Cessna 421 Fatal, NTSB blame inexp pilot
 

https://www.flyingmag.com/ntsb-blame...w5mUY_ak4BtWuo

Sounds like Darwin awards are justified. Plane was taken without permission, pilot had 500TT, 40ME but none in a 421 or anything nearly as complex. Also, the owner only paid $35,000 in June 2019 via eBay auction then spent just $6000 for repairs. $41K for a cabin class twin?

Tuition comes at a hefty price.

Since the aircraft was undergoing repairs, which were not yet completed or documented, and the pilot allegedly didn't have permission to fly the plane, yeah I'd blame him too.

So many red flags.
It’s sad.

Sounds like a pilot trying fill his logbook with ME time anyway he could. Good lesson for aspiring pilots of the potential consequences. With no one alive to tell a different story I suspect the "no permission" is an attempt to limit legal exposure. I may be offbase but the way I read it is the engines weren't putting out enough power to maintain level flight and he ran out of airspeed and stalled it flat into the trees. Was it a result of a mechanical problem or the pilot doing something that killed/reduced power I can't begin to say. One poster on another site posted the potential for animal/bird/insect nests to be in all sorts of hidden places for a plane sitting for a long time and a short run-up may or may not reveal their presence.

Could be. That's why I said "allegedly". I know a guy who had a mechanic deny everything after an in-flight failure, leaving him holding the bag for the fed... he had a CJO too.

Seriously? $35,000?

You couldn’t major one engine for $35,000.

How long had that hangar queen been sitting? I doubt you could even annual that thing for $6000.

THe mechanic had every right to. If the guy had a leg to stand on, he'd have had completed paperwork with the mechanic's signature. As he didn't have that, he was holding the bag. The aircraft is unairworthy without that signature. Signature first, fly second.

Hard lesson learned on his part. Doesn't change the fact that the mechanic was and is a POS.

I arrived at a mountain airstrip many years ago, to do an inspection on a commercial sailplane. It wasn't complete at the end of the day. I put the various parts inside the cockpit under the canopy, closed it up, and flew away, to return the next day. When I arrived the following day, the sailplane was missing. Someone said the owner was giving rides in it. A lot of parts had been removed as part of the inspection, including the cockpit, with everything set inside the cockpit. The owner simply sat the passengers in the cockpit, nothing actually attached to the aircraft, and went flying. When he landed, he saw the look on my face, and said, "you're going to laugh when you see what I did."

I didn't laugh.

Someone takes an airplane when the maintenance isn't done (and it's not done if it's not singed off), it's all on them. That's the nature of being pilot in command. The buck really does stop in that cockpit.

A mechanic can't return an aircraft to service. A mechanic can only approve an aircraft for return to service. The pilot returns it to service when he or she flies it. It's on the pilot.