Accident to the Cessna 340 registered N413JF on 10/08/2020 at Vitry-aux-Loges
Diminution de la puissance du moteur gauche lors de l'approche finale, atterrissage forcé dans une forêt, collision avec les arbres puis le sol, incendie, évacuation d'urgence
While the pilot was on final in visual flight conditions for runway 23 at Orléans airport, the power of the left engine decreased. The investigation was not able to determine what caused this.
The pilot, concentrating on monitoring the approach parameters, did not immediately realize that there was a malfunction on the left engine. He noticed that the aircraft's rate of descent was too high to follow the standard approach slope. The pilot first attempted to go around and reconfigured the aeroplane to do this by retracting the landing gear and flaps.
In spite of these actions, the pilot observed that the power delivered by the aircraft's engines would not allow him to return to the slope and understood, on becoming aware of the action of his right foot on the rudder pedal, that the power output of the left engine was abnormally low.
Given the low height of the plane on making this observation, the pilot decided to carry out an off-airfield landing.