Eastern Air Charter Piper PA-31T accident
Piper PA-31T · Accident: in flight collision with terrain/water during landing
From Bangor International Airport (BGR) to Norwood Memorial Airport (OWD)
Event
- NTSB case
- BFO94LA045
- Event typeAccident: someone killed or seriously injured, or the aircraft substantially damaged (NTSB definition). Incident: an occurrence that affected or could have affected safety, short of that. Glossary
- Accident
- InvestigationHow far the investigation had got when the record was published: preliminary, ongoing, final or completed. Unknown where the source does not say. Glossary
- Completed
- API-reported fatalities
- 0 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- 0
- OperationWhat kind of flying it was, grouped by the rules it flew under: airline (US Part 121), air taxi and commuter (Part 135), general aviation (Part 91 and similar), military or government. Glossary
- Charter & commuter
- WeatherVisual meteorological conditions (VMC): good enough to fly by looking outside. Instrument conditions (IMC): cloud or low visibility, flying by instruments. Glossary
- Instrument Meteorological Cond
Piper PA-31T
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-31
- Category
- Airplane
- RegistrationThe aircraft's tail number, such as N12345 or G-ABCD. Registrations are reissued, so the same one years apart can be a different aircraft. Glossary
- N777JM
- Operator
- Eastern Air Charter
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Bangor International Airport (BGR), Bangor, METo Norwood Memorial Airport (OWD), MA
- Aircraft age
- Not recorded
- Flight rulesThe regulations the flight operated under: in the US, Part 91 (general aviation), Part 121 (airlines), Part 135 (air taxi and commuter) and others; for flights abroad, the NTSB's coarser commercial or non-commercial code. Glossary
- Part 135: Air Taxi & Commuter
- Phase of flightThe stage of the flight when things started to go wrong: standing, taxi, takeoff, initial climb, en route, maneuvering, approach or landing. Glossary
- Landing · flare/touchdown
- First occurrenceThe single coded event the NTSB judges best describes what happened (records from 2008 on). Older records name the first occurrence in the sequence instead. Glossary
- In flight collision with terrain/water
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Substantial
Cause areas
- Pilot in command › Missed approach, not performed
- Pilot in command › Proper alignment, not attained
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Norwood, MA, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
THE FLIGHTCREW WAS ADVISED PRIOR TO INITIATING THE APPROACH THAT VISIBILITY AT THE AIRPORT HAD DECREASED TO 1/8 MI WITH LIGHT RAIN, FOG AND OBSCURATION. PUBLISHED LANDING VISIBILITY MINIMUMS FOR THE APPROACH WAS 1 MI. THE 150-FT WIDE RUNWAY HAD BEEN PLOWED 100 FT WIDE, AND THERE WERE SNOWBANKS UP TO 3 FT HIGH ON BOTH SIDES. THE AIRPLANE TOUCHED DOWN ON THE UNPLOWED PORTION OF THE RUNWAY ONTO A SNOWBANK, COLLAPSING THE LANDING GEAR. THE FLIGHTCREW STATED THAT THE APPROACH LIGHTS AND RUNWAY WERE IN SIGHT DURING THE ENTIRE APPROACH, AND THAT THE SECOND PILOT TOLD THE PIC THAT HE WAS TOO FAR LEFT AND NEEDED TO CORRECT TO THE RIGHT AS THE AIRPLANE WAS ABOUT TO TOUCH DOWN. THE TOWER CONTROLLER STATED THAT HE LOST SIGHT OF THE AIRPLANE AS IT LANDED DUE TO FOG.
Probable cause
THE PILOT'S FAILURE TO ATTAIN ALIGNMENT WITH THE CENTERLINE OF THE RUNWAY, AND HIS FAILURE TO EXECUTE A MISSED APPROACH. FACTORS WHICH CONTRIBUTED TO THE ACCIDENT WERE: THE DARK NIGHT, THE PILOT'S IMPROPER DECISION TO INITIATE THE APPROACH IN BELOW-MINIMUM WEATHER CONDITIONS, THE ADVERSE WEATHER, AND THE SNOW COVERED RUNWAY.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record BFO94LA045
- Event ID
- 20001206X00711
- Case number
- BFO94LA045
- Dataset
- historical-pre2008
- Source SHA-256
- 89e2df6d848e7ab3b42e7d7c7a03ff403303057a26ca04c95b3ea67201c3ce74
Source notes (4)
- Unreviewed is an editorial label, not an investigation status. API-sourced is not report-checked or human-reviewed. Explicit event totals are used without summing aircraft injury tables; onboard allocation is withheld. Unknown values remain unknown. The operation category is mapped from the NTSB-reported FAR part and has not been reviewed.
- Filled from the NTSB case API where the bulk record had no value: investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date, which is the same as the UTC date the NTSB stores.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 0a0a86676326bf4e539022925612371fb815ab36436afc0cc7874b27b90318d5; retrieved 2026-09-18T18:21:14.776Z.