Event NYC08CA072

Factual narrative

According to the pilot of the Beech E55, 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. 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. Source: NTSB Aviation Accident Database (Pre-2008 Archive) Retrieved: 2026-02-12