Accident to the Diamond DA62 registered D-IRAY on 21/09/2023 at Seichamps

The pilot and his passenger took off from Nancy - Essey airport. Less than two minutes after taking off, at a height of around 700 ft, and in a LH turn, while the pilot was turning in the runway circuit, a R ENG TEMP warning appeared. The pilot reported on the radio that he had an engine problem and was returning to the airfield.

The analysis of the parameters and the examination of the engine found that the accessory belt of the RH engine had separated during take-off which caused the coolant temperature to increase beyond the warning limit and activated the L/R ENG TEMP  warning.

The pilot indicated in his statement that he initially complied with the L/R GBOX TEMP checklist from memory.

In his management of the failure, the pilot began by reducing power on both engines. He kept reduced power on the LH engine and totally reduced power on the RH engine without shutting it down. The additional asymmetry linked to the reduction of power below the zero thrust condition (where thrust compensates drag) made the flight path difficult to control. In addition to this asymmetry, not using the available power on the LH engine compromised the chances of maintaining level flight or continuing the climb with one engine inoperative.

Believing that the performance was degraded, the pilot abandoned the attempt to continue to the runway and opted for an off-airfield emergency landing.

During the landing, the pilot lost control of his aeroplane which collided with vegetation. The examination of the wreckage found that the yaw trim was centred and slightly to the right. In this position, the RH yaw induced by the flight asymmetry with the RH engine shut down made the aircraft more difficult to control.