Accidents
Pilot in Break-up Flight Not Instrument Rated
The June 7 crash claimed the lives of all four people on board the turboprop-powered Piper.

The private pilot and owner of a turboprop-converted Piper PA 46-350P that broke up in flight following an encounter with weather in IMC had filed a Part 91 IFR flight plan, although he did not hold an instrument rating, according to the NTSB preliminary report on the June 7 accident near Castalia, North Carolina. The private pilot-passenger in the copilot seat was instrument rated, but he had not logged any actual instrument time or instrument approaches during the 12 months before the accident. All four occupants perished.