NYC96FA163 · Beech A36
Beech A36 · Accident: in flight collision with terrain/water on approach
From Charlotte Douglas International Airport (CLT) to Roanoke–Blacksburg Regional Airport (ROA)
Event
- NTSB case
- NYC96FA163
- 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
- 1 · 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
Beech A36
- Aircraft type
- Beechcraft 36
- 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
- N1795W
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Charlotte Douglas International Airport (CLT), Charlotte, NCTo Roanoke–Blacksburg Regional Airport (ROA)
- 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
- Approach
- 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
- Destroyed
Cause areas
- Pilot in command › IFR procedure, not followed
- Pilot in command › Missed approach, delayed
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Roanoke, VA, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
The flight was cleared for the ILS runway 33 approach and was approved a frequency change, which the pilot acknowledged. Radar data revealed that the flight was left of the localizer course and above the glide slope throughout the entire approach. The flight then over flew the airport at 4,100 feet to the northwest with a continuous descent. The pilot's last recorded transmission, which ended abruptly, was his intentions to execute the missed approach, at which time the radar data showed the flight about 5 miles northwest of the airport at 2,700 feet. The wreckage was located about 5 miles northwest of the airport at an approximate elevation of 2,600 feet. Examination of the wreckage did not disclose evidence of a mechanical malfunction with the airframe or engine. According to the instrument approach plate, for the ILS runway 33 approach, the missed approach point was located prior to the runway threshold at a decision height of 1,660 feet.
Probable cause
the pilot's failure to follow the published instrument approach procedures, and his delayed missed approach, which resulted in an inflight collision with mountainous terrain.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record NYC96FA163
- Event ID
- 20001208X06594
- Case number
- NYC96FA163
- 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: 539494bb585fc91682bc6def7ce6dbe44631b8ba14a70662e46b7049a9475507; retrieved 2026-09-18T13:36:55.282Z.