Cherokee 140 Lost to Terrain-Ending Scud Run

Author: Turbine

Accident Date: November 27, 2005

The Sunday that ended this past Thanksgiving weekend was no cause for gratitude by a man whose wife was presumably killed by his poor aviation decision-making. According to the NTSB preliminary report, a Piper Cherokee 140, “collided with trees on a mountain ridge while maneuvering around a cloud … in the vicinity of Blairsville, Georgia”.

Somewhat ironically, the wreckage of the aircraft and the victim’s remains were located by searchers on the side of Slaughter Mountain, in the Blood Mountain Wilderness Area of Northern Georgia.

The Aircraft

The NTSB report describes the aircraft as a Piper PA-28-140, FAA Registration N6485R. We all know, some love, and some love to hate the airplane as the Piper Cherokee 140, the under-powered, Hershey-Bar wing variant of the current Piper PA-28 (Warrior, Archer, Dakota, Arrow). The FAA Aircraft database indicates that this Cherokee was registered to Randy W.Hackle with an address in Cobbtown, GA.

The Pilot (alleged)

A search of the FAA Airmen database indicates that Randy Wayne Hackle was a Private Pilot with an Airplane Single-Engine Land rating. His medical date as recorded in the record was a Third-Class issued in November of 2003 and required that he possess glasses for near and intermediate vision. (It should be noted that the FAA Airman database as presented on the FAA website is often outdated.)

Newspaper Accounts

As described in various newspaper reports, Mr. Hackle, 56, survived the crash of the Cherokee with burns and other injuries while his wife, Barbara Hackle, 52, was killed.

The Accident

According to the pilot’s own statements as documented in the NTSB report, his concern over weather caused him to delay a 0900 departure until 1300. This flight was short-lived as he returned to the departure airport a half-hour later after encountering the weather which had caused the concern. In all too familiar fashion, the pilot decided to depart again at 1530, and after encountering cloud, attempted to maneuver to remain clear and legal. White fluffy stuff, terra firma, and low performance collided in classic fashion as Mr. Hackle, unable to reverse course and expired of all other options, crashed into trees and terrain. While he was able to extricate himself from the wreckage, such was not the case for his wife before the aircraft was consumed by the post-impact fire. Mr. Hackle hiked for approximately 17 hours before he found help.

This senseless accident (they all are) will most likely be judged to fall into the “continued VFR into IFR conditions” bucket, more commonly known as “scud-running”, which claims the lives of so many pilots and their generally unsuspecting passengers. Many of us have done it; let’s knock it off! There’s nothing so important to get to that we need to risk the loss of a family member!

Our thoughts go out to the family and friends of Barbara Hackle.

Let’s take a lesson from this one...

and, hey - Let’s be careful out there!