Narrative:

[The reasons for my trip were emotionally challenging. I was to meet my wife at the destination to mediate our impending divorce. I probably should not have flown but angry dissension with my wife made it impossible for us to drive together.]I checked the weather in the morning and determined that the flight could be accomplished. Rain was forecast for that evening but the plan was to only be there for an hour meeting so it was reasonable to expect that the return trip would also be doable from a weather perspective; so I completed the outbound flight. The one hour meeting quickly turned into four or more and ended with both my wife and I emotionally spent. I offered to drive her home and leave the plane at the airport but she angrily demanded I get out of her car and leave her alone.I no longer had a ride home and it was my responsibility to pick up kids. We had just been in heated mediation sessions where my wife had claimed I was a dead-beat dad; an absentee husband; and a terrible father. I had an unbelievable urge inside to demonstrate that was not true and picking up the kids on time became my single focus. I also knew the weather was going to get worse that night and it was getting dark soon so the added pressure of the loss of daylight and decrease in temperatures and lowering of the freezing level were factors that I allowed to pressure me into a hurried decision.just over two years prior my next door neighbor had killed himself along with 3 passengers in that exact same terrain in a CFIT scenario that was weather related. Even though I knew I could be susceptible to this type of accident I still attempted to scud run and avoid the freezing layer above and the terrain below. I rationalized that there were several airports along the way where I could divert. I rationalized that with my experience and the onboard terrain avoidance taws-B and weather datalink that I should be able to make it through the pass and stay out of the ice and avoid the terrain or at least make a 180 degree turn back to an airport I had already passed.I knew that accidents can and do happen but never really believed that it could happen to me and this is unfortunately a classic demonstration of the hazardous 'invulnerability attitude.' I allowed my extreme focus and fixation on the end objective of landing on time so I could pick my kids up to completely cloud my judgment and cause me to disregard any other course of action.I clearly used scud running techniques to avoid ice and maneuver around terrain which increased the risk of a safe flight. I did not think climbing was an option because of pireps of moderate icing by airliners in the vicinity of the route I was flying. As a result; at the worst possible moment when maneuvering near terrain in a mountain pass; I continued my VFR flight into IMC. I didn't attempt a 180 degree turn because of terrain on both sides of the aircraft although I did execute a climb of about 400-500 ft where I was able to resume VFR flight once clear of clouds and maintained VFR for the remainder of the flight to my home airport.so; several factors played into this incident which could have resulted in the loss of my aircraft and my life in a CFIT accident. It can happen to me. Clearly it can; and it almost did. I will monitor myself and not allow a flight to be considered under such extreme circumstances. I will keep the aircraft on the ground and evaluate alternative courses of action before attempting a flight with high risk associated with it. I will know that this time of my life as I go through a divorce; and any other high stress times in my life; may lead to future poor decisions. I will guard against this by recognizing it early and taking corrective action. I will avoid the scenarios that could lead to risky flights and I will build better alternatives into my planning and execute those plans when faced with high risk flight.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: An emotionally distressed pilot of a CE400 allowed outside factors to coerce into flying a flight in conditions which resulted in flight into IMC conditions and the very real potential for CFIT.

Narrative: [The reasons for my trip were emotionally challenging. I was to meet my wife at the destination to mediate our impending divorce. I probably should not have flown but angry dissension with my wife made it impossible for us to drive together.]I checked the weather in the morning and determined that the flight could be accomplished. Rain was forecast for that evening but the plan was to only be there for an hour meeting so it was reasonable to expect that the return trip would also be doable from a weather perspective; so I completed the outbound flight. The one hour meeting quickly turned into four or more and ended with both my wife and I emotionally spent. I offered to drive her home and leave the plane at the airport but she angrily demanded I get out of her car and leave her alone.I no longer had a ride home and it was my responsibility to pick up kids. We had just been in heated mediation sessions where my wife had claimed I was a dead-beat dad; an absentee husband; and a terrible father. I had an unbelievable urge inside to demonstrate that was not true and picking up the kids on time became my single focus. I also knew the weather was going to get worse that night and it was getting dark soon so the added pressure of the loss of daylight and decrease in temperatures and lowering of the freezing level were factors that I allowed to pressure me into a hurried decision.Just over two years prior my next door neighbor had killed himself along with 3 passengers in that exact same terrain in a CFIT scenario that was weather related. Even though I knew I could be susceptible to this type of accident I still attempted to scud run and avoid the freezing layer above and the terrain below. I rationalized that there were several airports along the way where I could divert. I rationalized that with my experience and the onboard terrain avoidance TAWS-B and weather datalink that I should be able to make it through the pass and stay out of the ice and avoid the terrain or at least make a 180 degree turn back to an airport I had already passed.I knew that accidents can and do happen but never really believed that it could happen to me and this is unfortunately a classic demonstration of the hazardous 'invulnerability attitude.' I allowed my extreme focus and fixation on the end objective of landing on time so I could pick my kids up to completely cloud my judgment and cause me to disregard any other course of action.I clearly used scud running techniques to avoid ice and maneuver around terrain which increased the risk of a safe flight. I did not think climbing was an option because of PIREPs of moderate icing by airliners in the vicinity of the route I was flying. As a result; at the worst possible moment when maneuvering near terrain in a mountain pass; I continued my VFR flight into IMC. I didn't attempt a 180 degree turn because of terrain on both sides of the aircraft although I did execute a climb of about 400-500 FT where I was able to resume VFR flight once clear of clouds and maintained VFR for the remainder of the flight to my home airport.So; several factors played into this incident which could have resulted in the loss of my aircraft and my life in a CFIT accident. It CAN happen to me. Clearly it can; and it almost did. I will monitor myself and not allow a flight to be considered under such extreme circumstances. I will keep the aircraft on the ground and evaluate alternative courses of action before attempting a flight with high risk associated with it. I will know that this time of my life as I go through a divorce; and any other high stress times in my life; may lead to future poor decisions. I will guard against this by recognizing it early and taking corrective action. I will avoid the scenarios that could lead to risky flights and I will build better alternatives into my planning and execute those plans when faced with high risk flight.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of April 2012 and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.