Centre Airlines Beech E18S accident
Beech E18S · Accident: in flight encounter with weather on approach
From Mifflin County Airport (RVL) to State College Regional Airport (UNV)
Event
- NTSB case
- BFO93FA033
- 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 E18S
- Aircraft type
- Beechcraft 18
- 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
- N47E
- Operator
- Centre Airlines
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Mifflin County Airport (RVL), Reedsville, PATo State College Regional Airport (UNV), UNIVERSITY PARK, PA
- 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 encounter with weather
- 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 › In-flight planning/decision, improper
- Pilot in command › Proper altitude, not maintained
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE INSTRUMENT RATED PILOT WAS EN ROUTE TO PICK UP CARGO. HE RECEIVED THREE PREFLIGHT WEATHER BRIEFINGS EARLIER THAT INDICATED SNOW, MOUNTAIN OBSCURATION, AND LOW VISIBILITY. HE REPORTED, 'SEEING THE LIGHTS OF UNIVERSITY,' AND REQUESTED A CONTACT APPROACH. HE ALSO SAID THAT IF HE COULD NOT GET IN, HE WOULD MAKE AN ILS APPROACH. WHEN THE AIRPLANE WAS 4 MILES SOUTH OF THE AIRPORT, THE NEW YORK AIR TRAFFIC CONTROLLER CLEARED THE PILOT FOR A CONTACT APPROACH TO RUNWAY 24. A WITNESS REPORTED HEARING A LOW FLYING AIRPLANE. HE STATED THAT IT WAS SNOWING HEAVILY AND HE SAW THE TAIL LIGHT OF AN AIRPLANE BRIEFLY THROUGH THE SNOW. HE ALSO REPORTED THAT A SNOW SQUALL WAS IN THE AREA AT THE TIME. SHORTLY AFTERWARD, HE HEARD WHAT WAS LATER DETERMINED TO BE THE SOUND OF THE COLLISION. SEARCH PERSONNEL LOCATED THE WRECKAGE 3.3 MILES SOUTH OF THE AIRPORT ON TOP OF MOUNT NITTANY WHICH WAS ABOUT 2000 FEET HIGH.
Probable cause
IMPROPER INFLIGHT PLANNING DECISION BY THE PILOT, AND HIS FAILURE TO MAINTAIN PROPER ALTITUDE DURING THE APPROACH. FACTORS RELATED TO THE ACCIDENT WERE DARKNESS, ADVERSE WEATHER CONDITIONS, AND HIGH TERRAIN.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record BFO93FA033
- Event ID
- 20001211X11783
- Case number
- BFO93FA033
- 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: local date, investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 1993-02-24.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 06c792a0df4b09204715affa20816db16401dd80d21d6329cae2ff76b10cd96c; retrieved 2026-09-18T13:54:01.050Z.