Yesterday my friends and I went on what turned out to be the most strenuous and somewhat dangerous hiking trip I've ever been on. We were on a trail near Grandfather mountain in the North Carolina Appalachians. After climbing a few ladders and ropes over extremely steep terrain, we came across what appeared to me to be aircraft wreckage. After my pilot friend James and I approached the wreckage we instantly recognized it to be a Cessna and after looking at part of the cowling, an older C182. Boy, was it spooky!The NTSB states that the non-IFR rated pilot continued into IMC conditions. Obviously the 6000' peak took his life. The crash has been there since March of '78.Someone else captured the wreckage on video, not our group. The folks in this video are obviously not pilots/aviation buffs as things are said like, "B for Boy" and "is the number on both sides?" But they do a fine job of getting the wreckage on film.

A horrific site, especially considering that the sole person on board met his maker that day, as to be expected looking at the footage. As it happens, I was in Greensboro at the time and vaguely remember a news report the following morning, though if memory serves me the aircraft went down sometime the previous afternoon. I believe that was a "Q" model. I don't recall the circumstances, but much was made of the fact that the pilot had an outdated chart.

Wow I've been up in that area quite a bit hiking but never knew that was there. Was the wreckage left just because lifting it out of the forest is more effort than it's worth?

Wow I've been up in that area quite a bit hiking but never knew that was there. Was the wreckage left just because lifting it out of the forest is more effort than it's worth?

I imagine that is the only reason it has been left. It's quite the hike getting back to the parkway in any direction!It was a Q, Rightseater (pretty new at that time). The sole occupant indeed perished. Apparently the chart was probably not all that useful (outdated or not!) if the NTSB report is correct, as he made a conscious decision to continue into fog/cloud cover.There's been several other crashes in that area, all but one fatal. I just thought I'd share as it really hit close to home to me since I've flown in the area and never thought twice about it.

I imagine that is the only reason it has been left. It's quite the hike getting back to the parkway in any direction!It was a Q, Rightseater (pretty new at that time). The sole occupant indeed perished. Apparently the chart was probably not all that useful (outdated or not!) if the NTSB report is correct, as he made a conscious decision to continue into fog/cloud cover.There's been several other crashes in that area, all but one fatal. I just thought I'd share as it really hit close to home to me since I've flown in the area and never thought twice about it.

That's right, I think I actually remember that now.......about him flying into conditions he was not qualified or prepared for. I've never been in the close vicinity of that wreck, only as far as the Greensboro NBC affiliate at the time, but I've got to imagine that it would be quite a process to remove the wreckage. Not even sure how close you could get any type of vehicle. I saw the results of a wreck in the mountains just outside of Elkins, West Virginia back when I was a few moons younger. At the time there was no way you could get any vehicle within miles of the wreck, so a salvage team welded together some bars to make a really thin trailer and pulled it with a horse. On the way out with a piece of the wing, the trailer hit a tree, knocked the horse on the ground and broke his leg, and that was the end of the salvage effort. I believe the aircraft still sits there today. Maybe someone else remembers the plane, it was a mail carrier I think.

R.I.P. http://www.ntsb.gov/ntsb/brief.asp?ev_id=42026&key=0

R.I.P. http://www.ntsb.gov/..._id=42026&key=0

Well what do you know about that? There was something in there about an outdated chart, though obviously continuing into a low ceiling VFR is the cause. Still nice to know my memory works a little when I want it to.

Was the wreckage left just because lifting it out of the forest is more effort than it's worth?

Back in 1978 it was common to strip wreckage and only take items of value. Normally the powerplant is recovered for NTSB and manufacture teardown if not done in the field. Today thanks to the Forest Service/BLM the whole aircraft has to be removed and remediation is required. I worked a crash in MT of a Husky where the forest service require the insurance company get the whole plane out. Nothing was left after the crash but the powerplant and tube structure. Both pilots escaped and crawled to safety prior to the post impact fire. The hike was 5 hours each way and a helicopter hovered for a sling load. Funny thing was there were two other crash sites within a few miles (helo initially hovered over wrong site) and the forest service could care less. USFS seems to think the poor animals and hikers will crawl on the wreckage and get hurt.