Beechcraft BE-55 N777EV

Summary

On 13 December 2007 at about 12:45 local time, a Beechcraft BE-55 registered N777EV was involved in an accident near Lancaster, Pennsylvania, United States. One person was 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

13 December 2007 at 12:45

Classification

Accident

Location

Lancaster, Pennsylvania, United States

Nearest airport

Lancaster Airport (LNS)

Coordinates

40.1217, -76.2958

Aircraft

Beechcraft BE-55

Registration

N777EV

Category

Airplane

Engines

2

Operator

Not recorded

Operating rule

Part 91: General Aviation

Purpose of flight

Personal

Phase of flight

Not recorded

Route

Harrisburg → Lancaster

Aircraft damage

Substantial

Weather

VMC

Light

Day

NTSB number

NYC08CA072

Nobody was injured.

The pilot's failure to maintain a proper glidepath during the landing approach. Contributing to the accident was the pilot's improper decision to fly with known deficiencies in equipment, and the icing conditions.

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

Read the full NTSB narrative

The purpose of the accident flight was to reposition the airplane for maintenance, and was only about 10 minutes in duration. The pilot reported that an airman's meteorological advisory existed warning of light to moderate icing in precipitation and freezing drizzle along his route of flight. During the instrument flight rules flight, the pilot maintained visual contact with the ground, and reported the presence of light freezing drizzle and rain. The airplane's deicing equipment cleared the airframe of ice; however, the view through the windscreen became obscured, as the anti-ice plate on the windscreen had previously been removed for replacement, and a new unit had not yet been installed. The pilot utilized the autopilot to fly a coupled instrument landing system approach, and decoupled the autopilot about 300 feet above the ground. Using the side windows and the radar altimeter, the pilot estimated that the airplane had enough altitude to reach the runway, but due to the up-sloping terrain prior to the runway threshold, the airplane was actually lower than the pilot thought. The airplane subsequently contacted terrain about 150 feet short of the runway threshold. As the airplane came to a stop the nose landing gear collapsed, and the right main landing gear separated, damaging the wing spar. The weather reported at the destination airport, about 10 minutes before the accident, included freezing rain and a temperature of 0 degrees Celsius.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record.