A PLANE which crashed near Fife Airport last year, killing the pilot, lost power because water got into the engine, investigators have found.
Nicholas Denison-Pender, 50, from Perthshire, was fatally injured after the light aircraft he was flying, a Rockwell Commander 112 TCA, crashed near Kinglassie at about 11.40am on December 23.
No one else was injured in the incident.
A preliminary report published by the UK’s Air Accident Investigation Branch (AAIB) found before the crash the pilot said he was going for a “brief local flight”.
CCTV showed the plane “appeared to depart abruptly from controlled flight” at 11.34am, “possibly entering an incipient spin”.
It said, at about the same time, CCTV in Kinglassie “recorded the sound of an engine misfiring”, followed by images of the plane hitting the ground nearby.
A witness at the airport reported hearing a brief mayday call from the pilot.
The preliminary report concluded: “The loss of engine power after take-off was caused by water ingestion into the carburettor’s main nozzle, due to significant water contamination of the aircraft’s fuel system.
“The pre-flight inspection was not effective in removing all the water present in the fuel system and the investigation has not been able to determine which pre-flight checks were completed prior to the flight.”
The report said a further investigation “will continue to examine the cause of the water ingress into the fuel system and the possible reasons why the engine lost power approximately 26 minutes after being started, but not beforehand”.
It said the investigation will also consider the handling of the aircraft following the loss of engine power.
