A Piper Comanche carrying six people crashed into the TPC Scottsdale Champions Golf Course roughly 70 seconds after taking off from Scottsdale Airport in April 2018, killing everyone on board. Federal investigators later determined the single-engine plane had been loaded 135 pounds over its maximum gross weight and was so far out of balance toward the tail that the pilot lost the ability to keep it under control during the climb.
A Vegas-Bound Flight That Never Made It Off the Ground Safely
The National Transportation Safety Board’s final report found the probable cause of the crash was the flight instructor’s failure to maintain control of the airplane during initial climb, a failure rooted in how the aircraft had been loaded, according to the National Transportation Safety Board. Investigators calculated the plane’s actual weight at 3,335 pounds against a certified maximum of 3,200 pounds, and found its center of gravity sitting 2.22 inches behind the aircraft’s aft limit — a combination that, per the NTSB, severely reduces pitch stability and can make a stall impossible to recover from. As detailed by aviation outlet Fear of Landing, the Comanche was designed as a four-seat aircraft that could technically be extended to six seats, but only with strict luggage limits and less than full fuel — conditions this flight did not meet.
The plane was headed from Scottsdale to Las Vegas, carrying six people and full fuel, per the same account. The trip’s organizer, an Instagram user known for jet-setting content who had roughly 12,000 followers at the time, had planned to fly friends between the two cities and had estimated his passengers as three small girls and two medium guys, plus himself, according to Fear of Landing’s reporting. He occupied the front-left seat, while the qualified pilot who agreed to serve as pilot in command sat in the right-hand seat.
A First-Time Aircraft, a Rushed Turnaround
The pilot in command had roughly 200 hours of flight time in Comanche-type aircraft, the outlet reports, but the leg from Las Vegas to Scottsdale immediately before the crash was his first time ever flying that specific airplane, according to an analysis by the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association. The crew spent only about 26 minutes on the ground in Scottsdale loading passengers before departing again, the analysis found. A separate flight instructor had originally been slated to fly but backed out of the planned trip, per Fear of Landing, leaving the qualified pilot to take on the flight as pilot in command — a role that under federal aviation regulations carries sole legal responsibility for calculating weight and balance before takeoff, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.
The instagrammer had misstated the aircraft’s maximum gross weight as 1,200 pounds and estimated the group’s luggage as small and light, carried on passengers’ laps, Fear of Landing reports. The Comanche’s actual empty weight was 2,007 pounds, with capacity to carry 1,193 pounds beyond that figure — a margin the fully loaded flight blew past. A previous flight in the same aircraft had carried four people and 100 pounds of luggage while maintaining a 700-foot-per-minute climb rate, the outlet notes, a performance benchmark the overloaded flight never came close to matching.
Warning Signs Before the Plane Ever Left the Runway
Ground personnel noticed trouble even before takeoff. A ramp worker observed that the engine required several attempts to start, and an airport operations technician later reported that the engine sounded below full power, though the technician also noted no sputtering, roughness, smoke, fire, or vapors at the time, according to Fear of Landing. A tower controller noticed the engine did not sound to be producing enough power and asked the flight crew whether they were experiencing difficulty; the crew responded, “We’re good. We’re just in training mode,” per the outlet’s reporting — a statement a qualified pilot later said could not be considered accurate, since the flight did not meet the standard for instructional flying…