Accident to the Cirrus SR22 registered N456AR on 07/10/2024 at La Bretonnière la Claye

The pilot had an appointment with a maintenance workshop situated on Guernsey in order to service the airframe parachute of his Cirrus SR22. As he did not hold the required English language proficiency certificate (FCL.055) to fly to Guernsey, he had planned to fly to Dinard in order to pick up a pilot who had the FCL.055 before going to Guernsey.

The pilot took off from Atlantic Air Park private aerodrome despite weather conditions incompatible with a VFR flight. Rapidly, after taking off, the aeroplane very probably entered the cloud layer. It is likely that the pilot then lost his visual references. As he did not hold an instrument rating, the pilot was not able to orientate himself. After flying for just over one minute, the aeroplane entered a continuous left-hand turn in descent. As the height of the cloud base was around 300 ft, the pilot did not manage to correct the flight path of the aeroplane before the latter collided with the ground.