Accident de Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter 200 N201RH,

ASN Wikibase Occurrence # 323459

Date:	Monday 31 July 2000
Time:	00:34
Type:	de Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter 200
Owner/operator:	Win Win Aviation
Registration:	N201RH
MSN:	163
Year of manufacture:	1968
Total airframe hrs:	28711 hours
Engine model:	Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6A-27
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 1 / Occupants: 3
Aircraft damage:	Destroyed, written off
Category:	Accident
Location:	3 km SSW of Raleigh/Durham Airport, NC (RDU) - United States of America
Phase:	Approach
Nature:	Ferry/positioning
Departure airport:	Hinckley Airport, IL
Destination airport:	Louisburg-Franklin County Airport, NC (LFN/KLHZ)
Investigating agency:	NTSB
Confidence Rating:	Accident investigation report completed and information captured

Narrative:
The Twin Otter was on a positioning flight to a maintenance facility at Louisburg to have maintenance performed on the engines. Poor visibility due to ground fog forced the pilot to abandon his attempt to land. The pilot elected to divert to Raleigh-Durham. The flight was heading in a southwesterly direction, at 1,000 feet msl, about 1.5 miles from Raleigh-Durham, then turned left to heading of south, away from the airport. The last radar return showed the flight at an altitude of 500 feet msl, in a right turn heading 206 degrees. The aircraft crashed into dense woods within the Umstead State Park, short of Raleigh-Durham runway 32. Reported RDU weather at 00:30 was wind 140deg/6 knots, 500 feet broken ceiling.

PROBABLE CAUSE: "The pilot's continued VFR flight into IMC conditions, by failing to maintain altitude, and descending from VFR conditions into IMC, which resulted in him subsequently impacting with trees. Factors in this accident were: reduced visibility due to dark night and fog. An additional factor was the pilot was not certified for instrument flight."

Accident investigation: