Accident to the Cirrus SR22 registered N565CK on 21/12/2021 at Auxerre

The pilot took off from Oyonnax-Arbent aerodrome (Ain) at around 17:00 for a flight bound for Auxerre-Branches aerodrome under a night VFR flight plan.

The aircraft wreckage was found at around two kilometres south-west of the threshold of runway 36.

The various statements seem to show that the pilot had not really been fully aware that he was going to have to carry out a night VFR flight to Auxerre. His logbook indicated that he had not carried out a night flight for 14 years and that his experience was limited to five night flight hours carried out in 2007 as part of his training to obtain the approval to carry out this type of flight.

Between the departure from Oyonnax at 17:00 and the arrival at Auxerre at around 18:00, the weather conditions had degraded due to the formation of fog, limiting visibility to 900 m locally.

The radar flight path and the pilot’s exchanges with the AFIS officer showed that the pilot probably lost the external visual references between the left-hand downwind leg and the final for runway 36. In a left-hand turn on a flight path that initially converged with the final for runway 36, the aeroplane collided with the ground.