Rans S-19 | N519JR

The DTSB determines the Probable Cause of this accident to be Pilot Error, in that the pilot continued on into reduced clouds and reduced visibility due to low level fog, in an attempt to reach his destination. The accident site was in a gently rolling agricultural field about 13 nautical miles southwest of Yankton, South Dakota. Impact marks and debris were consistent with the airplane impacting the terrain in a left wing low, nose down attitude. The debris field was about 200 ft in length on a heading of about 023°. Additional cockpit related debris were found about 500 ft past the main wreckage. First responders stated that the weather at the accident site was fog with visibility of about 50 ft.

The DTSB recommends that all pilots of all aircraft use all available technology for both pre flight planning as well as in flight updates, and that pilots should avoid low level travel in an attempt to reach destinations. The DTSB recommends that pilots go around weather of this type, or stop and wait for better conditions as opposed to attempted continued VFR flight into known low IMC conditions.