Piper PA-28R-200 N56246

Summary

On 26 June 2006 at about 07:02 local time, a Piper PA-28R-200 registered N56246 was involved in an accident near Philipsburg, Pennsylvania, United States. 4 people were on board and one died, 3 were seriously injured. The aircraft was destroyed. The NTSB has published a probable cause for this accident; it is quoted in full below.

Date

26 June 2006 at 07:02

Classification

Accident

Location

Philipsburg, Pennsylvania, United States

Nearest airport

Mid-State (PSB)

Coordinates

40.8872, -78.1031

Aircraft

Piper PA-28R-200

Registration

N56246

Category

Airplane

Engines

1

Operator

Not recorded

Operating rule

Part 91: General Aviation

Purpose of flight

Personal

Phase of flight

Not recorded

Route

Springfield → Philipsburg

Aircraft damage

Destroyed

Weather

IMC

Light

Night/Dark

NTSB number

NYC06FA156

1 person died.

The pilot's failure to comply with the published instrument approach procedure, which resulted in controlled flight into trees. Factors in the accident were the low cloud ceiling, and dark night conditions.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record. This site does not paraphrase or interpret it.

Read the full NTSB narrative

The airplane was cleared for the full instrument landing system (ILS) runway 16 approach. After crossing the locator outer marker (LOM), the airplane turned outbound, executed a course reversal, and then proceeded inbound in the general direction of the LOM, but never became established during the procedure turn. The airplane passed abeam the LOM about 1/2 mile to the northeast, and then conducted one "S" turn in about a mile, crossing over the final approach course twice before radar contact was lost. The last recorded target was at an altitude of 2,700 feet, and located about 1/2 mile west of the approach end of the runway. The airplane impacted trees about 228 feet below the decision altitude of 2,325 feet, and came to rest in a wooded area on a heading of 160 degrees. Examination of the wreckage revealed the NAV 1 radio was tuned to the localizer frequency, but the automatic direction finder was not tuned to the LOM. In addition, no preimpact failures or malfunctions were identified with either the airframe or engine. The pilot had approximately 625 total hours of flight experience, of which 45 hours were under simulated instrument conditions, and 107 hours were under actual instrument conditions. At the time of the accident, the airplane had been aloft approximately 4 hours 19 minutes, had about 41 minutes of fuel remaining, and it was unlikely the pilot would have been able to reach his filed alternate airport approximately 100 nautical miles away. The pilot was advised, 1 hour before the flight, of decreasing ceilings to 400 feet with 2 miles. Interpolation of weather data revealed that the weather at the arrival airport was about 200 feet overcast with 2.5 miles of visibility in light rain.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record.