On February 13, 2022, a group of friends finished a weekend hunting trip on the coast of North Carolina. They boarded a Pilatus PC-12, a sophisticated, high-performance single-engine turboprop, for what should have been a quick 30-minute hop down the coast.
Instead, the flight became a masterclass in how small mistakes, when layered upon one another, create an unsurmountable “death trap.”
1. The Trap of “VFR into IMC”
The pilot, 67-year-old Ernest “Teen” Rolls, was experienced with over 3,000 hours of flight time. However, he made his first critical mistake before even starting the engine: he failed to get a weather briefing.
The clouds were hanging low at 2,000 feet, and rain was moving in. Instead of filing an Instrument Flight Rules (IFR) plan—which would have given him a protected path and professional guidance—he took off under Visual Flight Rules (VFR). Within minutes, he flew directly into thick clouds where he could no longer see the horizon. This is known as “VFR into IMC” (Instrument Meteorological Conditions), one of the leading causes of fatal accidents in general aviation.
2. The Distraction of Teaching
Teen wasn’t flying alone in the cockpit; his son, Jeffrey, was a student pilot with only 100 hours of experience. Throughout the flight, Teen was distracted, trying to teach his son how to program the aircraft’s complex navigation system.
Because they hadn’t programmed the route on the ground, they spent the entire flight “fumbling” with the computer. They flew into restricted military airspace by mistake, entered the wrong radio frequencies, and eventually lost all situational awareness.
3. The “Silent Killer”: Spatial Disorientation
As Teen grew more frustrated—admitting he was “way behind the eightball” and even realizing he didn’t have his glasses—he neglected the most basic rule of aviation: Aviate, Navigate, Communicate.
He was so focused on the computer that he forgot to manage the engine power. As the plane leveled off, the speed began to bleed away, dropping one knot per second. Suddenly, the aircraft’s safety systems triggered:
The Stick Shaker: The control wheel began to vibrate violently to warn of an impending stall.
The Autopilot Disengaged: A loud, repetitive “cavalry charge” warning tone filled the cockpit.
In the clouds, with no visual reference to the ground, Teen succumbed to spatial disorientation. His inner ear told him the plane was level, but the instruments showed he was pitching up at a dangerous 32 degrees. He began to cuss in frustration, still trying to “navigate” while the plane was literally falling out of the sky.
4. The Final Plunge
The aircraft entered a series of violent stalls. Because Teen never executed a proper stall recovery, the plane eventually rolled 90 degrees to the right and pitched 50 degrees nose-down.
Only 20 seconds before impact, Teen was still yelling at the computer to “navigate.” The plane slammed into the Atlantic Ocean at high speed, killing everyone on board instantly.
Lessons from the Flight Deck
The NTSB determined that the root cause wasn’t mechanical failure or even the weather—it was poor pre-flight planning. Ten minutes of preparation on the ground could have saved eight lives.
