Accident to the Beechcraft Bonanza A36 registered OO-JBM on 09/08/2019 in the Golf of Girolata (Corse-du-Sud)

Cat. 2 investigation report: simplified-format report, adapted to the circumstances of the occurrence and the investigation stakes.

The pilot was flying at around 2,000 ft above the sea, off the west coast of Corsica when the engine shut down. The engine did not restart despite the pilot’s attempts. Given the altitude of the aeroplane, the distance to the coast and its features, the pilot was obliged to prepare to ditch. He chose to ditch with the landing gear and flaps retracted, close to pleasure boats in order to be rescued quickly. The aeroplane stalled at low height. The stall can be explained by the pilot’s attention being principally focused on the aeroplane’s flight path in order to avoid the boats, to the detriment of controlling the speed, by a lack of knowledge of the stall speed in the clean configuration or by the stall warning not being detected in an emotionally-charged flight phase. The choice to ditch with the flaps retracted meant that the aeroplane stalled at a higher speed than with the flaps in a medium position. At a low height and without engine power, the pilot could not recover control of the aeroplane whose right wing and forward fuselage collided with the surface of the sea.
The cruise altitude of 2,000 ft did not leave sufficient time for the two occupants to don their life jackets during the emergency descent. Ditching close to pleasure boats nevertheless meant that the occupants of the aeroplane were immediately rescued and did not spend too much time in the water.
The unlocking of the forward right door by the passenger, before ditching, enabled it to be opened when the aeroplane was in the water. If this had not been done, the possible deformation of the aeroplane’s structure and the pressure exerted by the water would have probably not made this possible.
In the absence of an engine examination, it was not possible to explain the engine shutdown based solely on the examination of the maintenance documents.