Final Report: Pilot Faked In-flight Breakup, Hit the Silk

Piper PA-46-500TP, Jan. 11, 2009, Milton, Fla.–The owner-pilot, sole occupant of a Piper Meridian turboprop single on a night IFR flight from Anderson, Ind. (AID) to Destin, Fla. (DTS), escaped injury when he parachuted clear of the aircraft after reporting the Piper had sustained serious damage during an encounter with moderate to severe turbulence at FL240 in the vicinity of Guntersville, Ala. Just before leaving the aircraft, the pilot reported that the Meridian’s door and windshield had separated from the airplane in flight. The aircraft was destroyed when it hit the ground 300 feet from a residential area 18 miles north of the Gulf of Mexico. No injuries were reported to anyone on the ground.

The Meridian departed AID at 5:44 p.m. local time. During an ATC communication at 7:20 p.m. near Guntersville, the pilot told ATL Center he’d encountered “severe chop at two four oh.” The pilot quickly asked for an “emergency descent” and added that the Piper’s “windshield is cracking.” At 7:24 p.m. the pilot said the aircraft’s door had separated in flight. Three minutes later, the pilot told ATL he was bleeding profusely from injuries and planned to point the aircraft toward the Gulf of Mexico. ATC quickly offered the pilot headings to two nearby airports. The pilot said, “I have the controls locked and I’m graying out,” and did not acknowledge any further ATC calls. The pilots of a pair of military fighters scrambled to intercept the Meridian reported no lights or signs of life on board the aircraft as they approached. The fighter pilots did report that the aircraft’s door was open and that it appeared to be in a “slow, relatively controlled descent.”

When investigators later examined the wreckage, they could find no evidence of pre-impact failures or system malfunctions. The door of the aircraft and the windshield were found attached to the airframe. After a brief manhunt, the pilot was apprehended. Law enforcement personnel quickly determined he’d deliberately misled air traffic controllers and parachuted from the aircraft.

The pilot appeared before the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida on June 5, 2009, and pleaded guilty to Federal charges of willful destruction of an aircraft and knowingly and willfully communicating a false distress message to the United States Coast Guard. On Aug. 19, 2009, the pilot was sentenced to serve a 51-month prison term and ordered to pay restitution of $34,649.07 to the United States Coast Guard for search-and-rescue costs as well as $871,387.85 to the creditor that owned the turboprop.