BFO93LA028 · Piper PA-31T1
Cianbro Piper PA-31T1 · Accident: on ground/water collision with terrain/water during landing
From Portland International Jetport (PWM) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- BFO93LA028
- 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
- General aviation
- WeatherVisual meteorological conditions (VMC): good enough to fly by looking outside. Instrument conditions (IMC): cloud or low visibility, flying by instruments. Glossary
- Visual Meteorological Cond
Piper PA-31T1
- 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
- N6192A
- Operator
- Cianbro
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Portland International Jetport (PWM), Portland, METo not recorded
- 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
- 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
- On ground/water 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 › Go-around, delayed
- Pilot in command › In-flight planning/decision, inadequate
- Pilot in command › Overconfidence in personal ability
- Pilot in command › Proper alignment, not attained
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Pittsfield, ME, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
THE PILOT TRIED TO ACTIVATE THE RADIO-CONTROLLED RUNWAY BOUNDARY LIGHTS ABOUT 10 MILES AWAY, AND ALSO WHILE HE WAS IN THE TRAFFIC PATTERN, BUT HE WAS UNSUCCESSFUL. HE CONTINUED HIS DESCENT TO APPROXIMATELY 500 FEET ABOVE THE GROUND USING THE VASI (VISUAL APPROACH SLOPE INDICATOR) LIGHTS. THE PILOT STATED THAT HE HAD THE AIRPORT IN SIGHT AND' FELT WELL ENOUGH IN SIGHT TO COMPLETE LANDING.' THE AIRPLANE TOUCHED DOWN IN APPROXIMATELY 18 INCHES OF SNOW 60 FEET OFF THE RIGHT SIDE OF THE RUNWAY. THE PILOT REPORTED THAT THERE WAS NO MECHANICAL MALFUNCTION. HE SAID AS HE GOT CLOSER TO THE GROUND HE REALIZED IT WAS SNOW-MOBILE TRACKS AND NOT THE RUNWAY. HE TRIED TO GO-AROUND BUT THE AIRPLANE IMPACTED THE GROUND COLLAPSING THE NOSEGEAR.
Probable cause
THE PILOT'S INADEQUATE INFLIGHT DECISION TO CONTINUE A LANDING WITHOUT RUNWAY LIGHTS, AND HIS DELAY IN INITIATING A GO-AROUND. A RELATED FACTOR WAS THE PILOT'S OVER CONFIDENCE IN HIS ABILITY.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record BFO93LA028
- Event ID
- 20001211X11788
- Case number
- BFO93LA028
- 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 1993-02-19.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 1b6fbe3db2859221806ca6e01a1354096693f7a7a10eff29a73fb2ad57096922; retrieved 2026-09-23T02:19:05.406Z.