NTSB NYC92LA180 — 1992-08-28 · SANFORD, Maine, United States

N350PM has since been reassigned. It is now registered to a different aircraft (PIPER PA 46-350P, built 2013), which was not involved in this event.

Aircraft involved

N350PM Piper PA-46-350 None

Probable cause & findings

THE PILOT DID NOT FOLLOW IFR PROCEDURES WHEN HE DISREGARDED THE DECISION HEIGHT LIMITATION AND FAILED TO INITIATE A MISSED APPROACH WHICH RESULTED IN THE AIRPLANE STRIKING TREES.

Factual narrative

ON THE SECOND ATTEMPTED ILS APPROACH THE PILOT SAID HE DID NOT HAVE THE RUNWAY IN SIGHT BUT, '...CONTINUED AT D.H. [SIC] FOR A FEW MOMENTS...' AND THEN SAW THE RUNWAY. HE SAID THERE WAS NOT ENOUGH RUNWAY REMAINING TO LAND AND '...[THE PILOT] WOULD ATTEMPT TO CIRCLE AT DECISION HEIGHT AND RE-INTERCEPT THE GLIDESLOPE. DURING THIS ILL-CONCEIVED MANEUVER I ENCOUNTERED ONE OR MORE PINE TREES...' AFTER DECLARING AN EMERGENCY THE PILOT WAS VECTORED TO AN AIRPORT 24 MINUTES AWAY. THE PILOT DESCRIBED THE AIRPLANE'S FLIGHT CHARACTERISTICS ON THE FLIGHT TO THE ALTERNATE AIRPORT AS, '...A CONTROL CONDITION SIMILAR TO AN ENGINE OUT IN A MULTI-ENGINE AIRPLANE.' AFTER TOUCHDOWN THE AIRPLANE DEPARTED THE RUNWAY AND CAME TO REST IN A MEDIAN BETWEEN A RUNWAY AND TAXIWAY. Source: NTSB Aviation Accident Database (Pre-2008 Archive) Retrieved: 2026-02-12

Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file NTSB_1992_NYC92LA180.txt. Findings + structured fields enriched from FAA avall.mdb. Full investigation docket on data.ntsb.gov ↗.

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