NYC98FA035 · Cessna 310R
Cessna 310R · Accident: in flight collision with terrain/water on approach
From Reading Regional Airport (Carl A Spaatz Field) (RDG) to OYM
Event
- NTSB case
- NYC98FA035
- 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
- 2 · 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
- General aviation
- 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
Cessna 310R
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 310
- 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
- N6923
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Reading Regional Airport (Carl A Spaatz Field) (RDG), Reading, PATo OYM
- 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 91: General Aviation
- 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 · IFR final 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 › Minimum descent altitude, not complied with
- Pilot in command › Procedures/directives, not complied with
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot initiated consecutive localizer/DME approaches to the uncontrolled airport after receiving weather information from the AWOS, which was published out of service and broadcasting in the 'Test' mode. Radar data revealed that during both approaches the airplane descended below the MDA for each segment of the approach flown. During the first approach, approximately 10 DME, the airplane was depicted 1,400 feet below the published MDA for that segment and 260 feet below the lowest MDA for the approach. Approximately 8 miles from the airport the pilot advised he was unable to activate the runway lights and received vectors for a second approach. During the second approach, the airplane impacted trees and terrain on a ridge line approximately 500 feet below the MDA for that segment of the approach. Weather was reported to be variable ceiling 100 feet and 1/4 mile visibility, with light drizzle and fog. In the remarks section of the approach plate for the LOC/DME approach it stated: 'Obtain local altimeter on CTAF/AWOS, when not available, procedure not authorized.'
Probable cause
was the pilot's descent below the minimum descent altitude and his failure to comply with published procedures.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record NYC98FA035
- Event ID
- 20001208X09233
- Case number
- NYC98FA035
- 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: a82dbf322c577ffcfea2a865efe1f0d8fc66855a347899d4f13e6a5542151607; retrieved 2026-09-20T22:44:55.916Z.