Beechcraft A36 N5363P

Summary

On 16 July 2006 at about 04:15 local time, a Beechcraft A36 registered N5363P was involved in an accident near Somerville, New Jersey, United States. 2 people were on board and nobody was injured. The aircraft was substantially damaged. The NTSB has published a probable cause for this accident; it is quoted in full below.

Date

16 July 2006 at 04:15

Classification

Accident

Location

Somerville, New Jersey, United States

Nearest airport

Somerset Airport (KSMQ)

Coordinates

40.6267, -74.6700

Aircraft

Beechcraft A36

Registration

N5363P

Category

Airplane

Engines

1

Operator

Not recorded

Operating rule

Part 91: General Aviation

Purpose of flight

Personal

Phase of flight

Not recorded

Route

East Hampton → Somerville

Aircraft damage

Substantial

Weather

IMC

Light

Night

NTSB number

NYC06CA177

Nobody was injured.

The pilot's continued flight into known adverse weather.

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

Read the full NTSB narrative

As the airplane approached the destination airport at night, the pilot cancelled his instrument flight rules (IFR) flight plan. On final approach, the pilot lost visual contact with the runway environment when the airplane entered a "dense ground fog bank" approximately 100 feet above ground level and 1/4 mile from the runway threshold. The pilot was "blinded" by the reflection of the airplane's landing light in the fog, initiated a go-around, but the airplane struck a tree and impacted terrain seconds later. The pilot stated that he obtained the current Automated Surface Observing System (ASOS) report minutes prior to the accident, and the field was "within VFR parameters." The pilot was also aware of the possibility of ground fog. The meteorological aerodrome report (METAR) for the time of the accident included 1 mile visibility in fog, with vertical visibility of 100 feet. The METARs for the preceding 4 hours showed the visibility to be equal or less than 2 miles due to fog and mist.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record.