BFO93LA158 · Piper PA-46-350P
Deka Research & Devel Piper PA-46-350P · Accident: in flight collision with terrain/water during landing
From Manchester-Boston Regional Airport (MHT) to Block Island State Airport (BID)
Event
- NTSB case
- BFO93LA158
- 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-46-350P
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-46
- 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
- N46DK
- Operator
- Deka Research & Devel
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Manchester-Boston Regional Airport (MHT), Manchester, NHTo Block Island State Airport (BID)
- 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
- 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 › Airspeed(vyse), improper
- Pilot in command › Proper alignment, not attained
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Block Island, RI, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
DURING AN APPROACH TO LAND, THE PILOT MADE S-TURNS TO ALLOW FOR PROPER SPACING FROM A PRECEDING AIRPLANE. ON SHORT FINAL, HE DECIDED TO GO AROUND BECAUSE THE RUNWAY WAS STILL NOT CLEAR. HOWEVER, HE REPORTED THERE WAS A LACK OF RESPONSE CONCERNING THE POWER, SO HE DECIDED TO LAND AS ORIGINALLY PLANNED. THE PILOT TRIED TO ALIGN THE AIRPLANE WITH THE RUNWAY CENTERLINE, BUT ITS RIGHT WING AND LANDING GEAR STRUCK THE GROUND, AND THE RIGHT LANDING GEAR COLLAPSED. THE AIRPLANE SKIDDED OFF THE RIGHT SIDE OF THE RUNWAY. DURING THE ACCIDENT SEQUENCE, THE OUTWARD PORTION OF THE RIGHT WING WAS TORN AWAY FROM THE AIRPLANE AND A FUEL LINE WAS RUPTURED. A GROUND FIRE ERUPTED AND BURNED THROUGH THE RIGHT SIDE OF THE AIRPLANE'S STRUCTURE AND RIGHT WING. NO PREIMPACT PART FAILURE OR MALFUNCTION WAS REPORTED.
Probable cause
IMPROPER IN-FLIGHT PLANNING/DECISION BY THE PILOT, AND HIS FAILURE TO ATTAIN PROPER RUNWAY ALIGNMENT.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record BFO93LA158
- Event ID
- 20001211X13334
- Case number
- BFO93LA158
- 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: 287647760903c86dbf08ea8344ebfc44923ceb38712785ef0cbe611a3c572774; retrieved 2026-09-23T01:40:00.728Z.