Piper Aerostar 601-P | N800AA

The DTSB determines the Probable Cause of this accident to be Pilot Error, in that the accident pilot made a night VMC takeoff and did rotate up into black night condition, losing all visual reference with the earth. The aircraft attained a maximum height of 125 feet above ground level before it started a wings level descent into rising terrain. From the NTSB preliminary report: “The data also indicated that the airplane reached a maximum height of about 125 ft above ground level (agl), before descending and leveling off at 75 ft agl for the last five recorded targets, spanning 12 seconds.
During that time, the groundspeed increased from 151 knots to 169 knots.” The accident pilot was distracted in the process of raising the landing gear as well as he was completely un aware that he was both sinking and accelerating directly into terrain that he could not see. Night VFR is IFR.

The DTSB recommends that all pilots of all aircraft rehearse and condition themselves for this AQP scenario, and concentrate on primary flight instruments during the critical after takeoff phase, to ensure that the aircraft is climbing appropriately.