BFO92FA031 · Cessna 210K
Cessna 210K · Accident: in flight collision with object on approach
From ILM · Wilmington, DE to Frederick Municipal Airport (FDK)
Event
- NTSB case
- BFO92FA031
- 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 210K
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 210
- 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
- N8104G
- Operator
- Harry V. Felmey · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From ILM · Wilmington, DETo Frederick Municipal Airport (FDK)
- 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 object
- Also codedOther events the NTSB coded in the sequence, such as a wire strike after a loss of power. Flight Findings uses them for its kinds of event. Glossary
- Tree(s)
- 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 › Decision height, not used
- Pilot in command › IFR procedure, improper
- Pilot in command › Proper glidepath, not maintained
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PILOTS WERE ON THE FIRST LEG OF A PERSONAL FLIGHT. THE PILOT-IN-COMMAND HAD OBTAINED A WEATHER BRIEFING ON THE PREVIOUS NIGHT, BUT HAD NOT UPDATED IT ON THE DAY OF THE FLIGHT. THE WEATHER AT THE DESTINATION AIRPORT WAS IN PART: 100 FT OVERCAST, REDUCED VISIBILITY WITH FOG, WIND FROM 020 DEG AT 7 KTS. ON THE FIRST APPROACH, THE PILOT EXECUTED A MISSED APPROACH, BUT DID NOT FOLLOW THE MISSED APPROACH PROCEDURE. THE MISSED APPROACH PROCEDURE WAS TO CLIMB TO 1000 FT MSL ON THE RUNWAY HEADING, THEN TURN LEFT, WHILE CONTINUING THE CLIMB TO 2800 FT VIA THE LOCALIZER COURSE TO THE OUTER MARKER. INSTEAD, HE CIRCLED TO THE RIGHT OVER THE CITY AND REQUESTED ANOTHER APPROACH. ON THE SECOND APPROACH, HE FLEW TO THE LEFT OF THE LOCALIZER AND DESCENDED BELOW THE GLIDE SLOPE AND DECISION HEIGHT. THE AIRCRAFT IMPACTED TREES ON A HILL ABOUT 200 FEET BELOW THE ILS DECISION HEIGHT AND 1.85 MI FROM THE APPROACH END OF RUNWAY 23. A POST- ACCIDENT INVESTIGATION REVEALED NO EVIDENCE OF A PREEXISTING MECHANICAL FAILURE.
Probable cause
THE PILOT'S IMPROPER IFR OPERATION AND DESCENT BELOW THE ILS GLIDESLOPE AND DECISION HEIGHT, WHICH RESULTED IN AN INFLIGHT COLLISION WITH TREES. THE WEATHER CONDITION AND LACK OF A RECENT WEATHER BRIEFING WERE RELATED FACTORS.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record BFO92FA031
- Event ID
- 20001211X14229
- Case number
- BFO92FA031
- 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: ac883f777841cb7c9449d6916b78d51c81c5efc7eae1e45e8b78e1976c64cae8; retrieved 2026-09-21T01:19:32.066Z.