January 8, 1986: General Aviation, Cessna 172N (N2113E) Grand Canyon, AZ
The evening of January 8, 1986 at Grand Canyon was one of those cold dark moonless nights with temperatures dropping well below freezing. For Michigan natives Ben Blecher, Steve Tabbert, and Jim Robinson, northern Arizona was a welcome change from the snowy suburbs of Detroit.
The trio had arrived in Las Vegas, Nevada earlier in the week to attend the annual Consumer Electronic Show. With the Grand Canyon nearby, the group decided to rent an airplane and tour the gorge. Blecher, a licensed low-time pilot had brought along his logbook to receive a quick check flight. With no flight time logged in the preceding year, few area flight schools wanted the liability of renting an aircraft to a non-current pilot. Blecher eventually went to K&M Aviation at Henderson/SkyHarbor Airport (L15) that would rent him a Cessna 172. After an hour or so evaluation flight with an instructor, Blecher was deemed “safe” and the three friends departed later that afternoon for Grand Canyon Airport.
The day at the Grand Canyon’s South Rim soon turned into night and the trio returned to the airport well after dark. In a hurry to return the rental aircraft, Blecher completed a quick pre-flight as best as he could without a flashlight. At 7:47PM, the Control Tower had already closed by the time Blecher taxied the Cessna to Runway 03.
The takeoff roll was uneventful as the bright landing lights illuminated the runway’s center-line, but as soon as Blecher began to lift the Cessna skyward, a curtain of blackness soon enveloped the windscreen. Continuing to climb, but rolling in a left turn, the non-instrument rated Blecher strained his eyes outside in an effort to see some form of horizon or visual reference. The Cessna, remaining in the left turn, began a deadly descent into the trees and high terrain west of the runway. The aircraft crashed in a 45 degree nose down, 15 degree left bank. There were no witnesses to the accident or the resulting fire which eventually burned itself out.
Incredibly, four days passed and the missing Cessna remained hidden in the dense trees and foliage surrounding the airport even though an intense search and rescue effort was in progress. A departing aircraft not connected with the search effort eventually spotted the scattered wreckage and reported it to the Control Tower.
HISTORICAL SUMMARY:
This crash site was brought to my attention by a fellow co-worker and aircraft mechanic at Grand Canyon Airlines. A few years ago he was on a walk and stumbled upon the wreckage of an aircraft on the west side of the airport. I was intrigued by his find and tried to locate it myself without success. I shelved the find for a year or so until, while on a training flight, I spotted a glint of metal through some trees. Making a rough note of the location, I hiked back into the area and located the crash site on April 3, 2012.
Due to a thorough clean-up of the crash site, I literally walked right on it before I noticed any debris. Very little remains of the wreckage, but only a few small pieces and parts scattered in a southeasterly to northwesterly pattern. An area of burned and melted metal and plastic marks the location of the post crash fire.
To positively identify the 26 year old crash site, I had to refer my investigation to a previously unknown wreckage debris pile in a meadow nearly 4 miles away. There, I was able to match small bits of wreckage from the crash site to parts found in the debris pile. This was the first time I had the opportunity to apply these forensic techniques to determine the identity of an aircraft involved in an accident.
AIRCRAFT INVOLVED
Aircraft "N2113E", MSN: 17271160, was a four-place Cessna 172N Skyhawk manufactured in August 1978. The aircraft was owned by K&M Aviation of Henderson/SkyHarbor Airport and was used for flight instruction and aircraft rental.
The aircraft was powered by a 160 horsepower AVCO/Lycoming O-320 series engine.
THE ACCIDENT
At 7:47PM, the takeoff from Grand Canyon National Park Airport's 9,000 foot Runway 03 was normal. The nose-cowling mounted landing lights illuminated the center-line runway stripe. The runway edge lights provided adequate visual reference to the pilot.
As pilot Ben Blecher begins to climb from the runway, his visual references vanished in the darkness. The aircraft began a gradual left turn. Probably without Blecher even realizing it.
With the left turn increasing in bank, the aircraft nose begins to drop to an alarming 45-degree nose down pitch angle.
At 200-300 feet above the ground, the only thing that could save the flight at this point would be for the pilot to reference the flight instruments immediately and make the appropriate correction.
Even though no official FAA flight plan was filed, the missing aircraft with the three men is reported overdue the next day by a concerned family member.
Both State and Federal agencies respond with an intense search and rescue mission that lasts nearly four days.
The Grand Canyon VHF Omnidirectional Range (VOR) Station is positioned 1,680 feet west of the runway centerline. The aircraft crashed about 1,300 feet northwest of this VOR Station and less than a 1/2 mile from the airport's control tower.
The aircraft remained hidden in the trees and heavy foliage until a passing aircraft spotted the wreckage four days later.
THE SEARCH FOR CESSNA N2113E
I started searching for this aircraft crash site nearly two years before I actually located it. A co-worker told me of small scattered debris in the forest near the VOR Station, but after several attempts I was never able to locate the site.
On a recent training flight, I spotted a bright reflection in the forest from the air and I hiked to the general location to give it another look.
At first glance, there is nothing in the forest that indicates a crash site. To make the search even more difficult, the U.S. Forest Service has thinned the tree-line over the years by clear-cutting the vegetation.
LOOKING FOR CLUES
Finally, I find a few fragments that definitely look like remnants of aircraft wreckage.
Amid the trees and fallen branches, I locate the item in the forest that reflected the sunlight like a mirror and helped me locate the crash site.
The round aluminum inspection cover plate is found on numerous general aviation aircraft. Cessna's, Piper's, Mooney's and Beechcraft's all use them and all have crashed near the airport over the years.
To positively identify the site, I will need to locate a fragment that ID's the aircraft without question.
A piece of engine baffling helped direct airflow in the engine compartment and reduce noise.
A piece of melted aluminum may indicate the aircraft burned...or it may have been on the ground and melted during a controlled burn of dead forest vegetation after the accident.
I located a few fragments of tinted window Plexiglas. These fragments also helped me to establish the crash site area dimensions and the direction the aircraft was traveling at the time of the accident.
Some fragments of the windows had been partially buried over the years.
This window fragment had a distinctive curve.
The sharp curve of the window fragment is consistent with windshields found on single-engine Cessna's like the 172 Skyhawk.
A tubular engine mount fragment displays evidence of a terrific impact.
A "NO SMOKING" sign that was probably attached to the aircraft's instrument panel, hints to the possibility that this crashed aircraft was used as a rental.
Signs like this are quite common in aircraft rented to the aviation public or aircraft in public use. Not so common in personal aircraft.
A hose clamp from the engine compartment displays the component manufacture's name, but not the aircraft make or type.
A corner piece of flight instrument glass provides evidence that the aircraft cabin was compromised in the accident.
These small plastic fragments give me an idea of the paint color and scheme of the aircraft. They also look very similar to an un-identified pile of burned aircraft debris located about four miles away at Ten-X Meadow.
I decided to remove a few of these pieces from the crash site to see if the paint matches the fragments in the Ten-X Meadow debris pile.
WRECKAGE DUMP SITE - TEN-X MEADOW
The day after I visited the crash site in the forest, I drove out to Ten-X Meadow to re-examine the aircraft debris pile.
I have known about this pile of small aircraft wreckage for years, but have never been able to positively identify it. I brought along the four pieces of painted plastic fragments that I found at the crash site to compare.
Everything I saw in the debris pile pointed to a single-engine Cessna aircraft. More specifically to a Cessna 172N Skyhawk.
This mangled set of nose cowling mounted landing/taxi lights are specific to a 1978 model "N" Cessna 172.
Unlike the larger Cessna 182 which is powered by a Continental engine, the Cessna 172 is powered by an AVCO/Lycoming engine.
This piston valve cover from the debris pile helped me identify the engine manufacturer.
The discovery of this aft baggage door handle helped identify the aircraft as a Cessna 172.
The aircraft's Emergency Locator Transmitter (ELT) was a burned out shell from the post crash fire. After the initial impact, it probably operated for a few short minutes, before it was finally deactivated by the fire.
The loss of an emergency signal from the ELT slowed Search and Rescue responders from locating the wreck.
This collection of burned aircraft radios give silent testimony to the severe post impact fire. Had the fire spread, there is no doubt the wreckage would have been located sooner.
The discovery of these two small blade type antenna in the debris pile tells me that the aircraft was equipped with both an ATC Transponder and Distance Measuring Equipment (DME).
The spin-on engine oil filter was cut open as a common procedure by accident investigators in an attempt to determine if the engine was a cause or factor in the accident.
The fragmented right wingtip spells out the last three letters of the word "Cessna".
PUTTING THE "PUZZLE" TOGETHER
The paint color and plastic thickness matched perfectly with the fragments I found at the crash site, so I made an effort to see if I could find a fragment that would match.
I gathered all the wheel fairing fragments that I could find in the debris pile and laid them out. I started one by one putting the corners together as if it were a puzzle.
A PERFECT MATCH
In a few minutes, I found a fragment from the debris pile that matched a fragment found at the crash site (circled). The fractured edge matched perfectly,
To confirm a match, I checked the painted side and it matched as well.
With all the evidence collected at the crash site and debris pile, there was no question that the crash site located in the forest was a Cessna 172N Skyhawk and without a doubt the crash site of "N2113E".
SPATIAL DISORIENTATION
Since 1967, the Grand Canyon National Park Airport has had a notorious record for trapping the non-instrument rated and low-time pilot in what many local pilots in the area refer to as a “Black Hole” environment. The total absence of light and visual references on a dark moonless night requires a pilot to rely and trust the flight instruments. A failure to do so often results in tragedy.
For more information on Spatial Disorientation, visit the Federal Aviation Administration's website at http://www.faa.gov
THE END
