NTSB: Pilot in Smokies crash used visual flight rules

The Jacksonville-area pilot who crashed his single-engine airplane in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park the day after Christmas was using visual flight rules in weather conditions that required instrument flight rules, according to the preliminary aviation accident report filed by the National Transportation Safety Board.

Pilot David Starling, 41, of Lawtey, Fla.; his son, Hunter, 8; and Starling's girlfriend, Kim Smith, 42, died in the crash. The plane went down about 15 miles southeast of the Gatlinburg-Pigeon Forge Airport.

The NTSB report states that “instrument meteorological conditions prevailed,” meaning weather conditions required Starling to fly IFR. However, Starling was not instrument-rated, according to his Federal Aviation Administration airman certification, meaning he was not rated to fly using only instruments inside the plane.

Starling, who had not filed a flight plan for the personal flight, was flying at 9,500 feet when he requested a descent from an air traffic controller at McGhee Tyson Airport to land at the Gatlinburg airport.

The controller approved the descent at 3:54 p.m. and issued an altimeter reading, according to the NTSB report.

Around 3:58 p.m., the plane was about 20 miles from the Gatlinburg airport and descended below the minimum vectoring altitude of 8,000 feet at 130-150 knots groundspeed, according to the report.

At 4:02 p.m., the radar showed the plane at 5,400 feet next to Mount LeConte, which is approximately 6,500 feet in elevation. The plane disappeared from radar shortly afterward, according to the report. The wreckage was discovered on an unnamed ridge at 5,400 feet between Cole Creek and Bearpen Hollow Branch.

The controller issued a radio frequency change to the Gatlinburg airport common traffic advisory frequency at this time and terminated radio services with the plane, according to the report. No reply came from the plane and no further attempts to contact the plane were made, the report states.

Furthermore, the report states that satellite imagery "showed instrument flight rules conditions with cloud tops between 6,000 and 7,000 feet in the area surrounding the accident site and southward."

Weather in the park that night was foggy and rainy, spokeswoman Molly Schroer has said. There were no known weather advisories.

Pilot in deadly Smokies crash lacked optional IFR certification

Edward M. Booth Jr., an aviation lawyer and pilot in Jacksonville, Fla., said Starling was “trying to go through a cloud layer 2,000 feet thick with rocks in it."

“It’s a tragedy for the family of the girlfriend and the mother of the child,” he said. “It’s horrible. Pilots like me get mad about this kind of thing … when you disregard the safety procedures like not knowing where the mountains are …”

The plane was located the next day by helicopter in the steep, mountainous terrain around the same location the plane last made radar contact, the report said.

Due to the hazardous conditions at the site, the FAA conducted a photo-documentation of the wreckage before it was recovered and removed by helicopter, according to the report. The plane did not explode on impact and there was no aircraft fire, according to the report.

On April 27, 2016, Starling reported to his insurance carrier that he had accumulated 272 total hours of flight experience, 219 hours in his four-seat CESSNA that crashed, according to the report.

The most recent inspection of the plane was done on Oct. 5, 2015. Booth said planes are to be inspected once a year, meaning Starling’s plane was out of inspection. This did not factor in the crash, he said.

Starling, his son and girlfriend were traveling to the Gatlinburg area for a vacation with members of Smith's family who already were there, including her mother and sister, according to Smith's cousin Samantha Hodges of Jasper, Fla.

Starling had taken off from Keystone Airport in Keystone Heights, Fla., around 1 p.m. on Dec. 26.