auger in
intransitive verb
augered in; augering in; augers in
aviation, informal
: to crash catastrophically
Kinch went into a tumble during his record flight and came out of it at low altitude, as Yeager had done. That was just twenty days before Mel Apt augered in.
Tom Wolfe, The Right Stuff, 1979
Tom Wolfe, The Right Stuff, 1979The plane flipped upside down and augered in, killing him. Dan McKinnon, Rescue Pilot, 2002
Dan McKinnon, Rescue Pilot, 2002
Word History
Etymology
probably derivative of auger entry 1 (if originally from the notion that a propeller aircraft flying straight into the ground would excavate a hole as if it were an auger)
First Known Use
1944, in the meaning defined above