Basco Flying Service Piper PA-23-250 accident
Piper PA-23-250 · Accident: in flight collision with terrain/water on approach
From Philadelphia International Airport (PHL) to Reading Regional Airport (Carl A Spaatz Field) (RDG)
Event
- NTSB case
- NYC92FA079
- 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
- 4 · 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
Piper PA-23-250
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-23
- 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
- N62774
- Operator
- Basco Flying Service
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Philadelphia International Airport (PHL), Philadelphia, PATo Reading Regional Airport (Carl A Spaatz Field) (RDG), Reading, 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 · IFR missed 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 › IFR procedure, not followed
- Pilot in command › In-flight planning/decision, improper
- Pilot in command › Planned approach, improper
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PLT WAS AT A CRUISE ALTITUDE OF 4000 FT., EN ROUTE TO READING. HE WAS ISSUED A CLEARANCE TO EXECUTE THE ILS APPROACH TO RWY 36. AT THE TIME THE PLT RECEIVED THE CLEARANCE, HE WAS AT 4000 FT. AND 3 MILES FROM THE OUTER MARKER (LOM). THE LOM IS LOCATED 3.9 FROM THE END OF RUNWAY 36 AND THE GLIDESLOPE INTERCEPT ALTITUDE WAS 1636 FEET MSL. APPROXIMATELY 7 MINUTES AFTER ACCEPTING THE APPROACH CLEARANCE, THE PLT CONTACTED ATC AND STATED HE WAS EXECUTING THE 'MISSED APPROACH.' THE WRECKAGE WAS LOCATED IN MOUNTAINOUS TERRAIN, AT AN ELEVATION OF ABOUT 1,100 FT, APPROXIMATELY 13 MILES NORTH OF THE AIRPORT. BASED ON THE LAST RECORDED GROUNDSPEED OF 174 KNOTS, THE AIRPLANE WOULD HAVE TRAVELLED APPROXIMATELY 20 NM FROM THE TIME THE PLT RECEIVED THE APPROACH CLEARANCE (6.9 NM FROM THE AIRPORT) TO THE TIME HE BEGAN TO EXECUTE THE MISSED APPROACH.
Probable cause
THE PILOT'S IMPROPER IN-FLIGHT DECISION, HIS FAILURE TO FOLLOW PROPER IFR PROCEDURES, AND AN IMPROPERLY PLANNED APPROACH, WHICH RESULTED IN AN INFLIGHT COLLISION WITH RISING TERRAIN DURING THE EXECUTION OF THE MISSED APPROACH PROCEDURE. FACTORS RELATED TO THE ACCIDENT WERE: THE PILOT'S IMPROPER PREFLIGHT PLANNING AND PREPARATION.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record NYC92FA079
- Event ID
- 20001211X14497
- Case number
- NYC92FA079
- 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: 8bff6df228bcf16677d7ad9b57bf3c8dc803eb68cc4010082b1844f1e43b6927; retrieved 2026-09-18T13:59:24.991Z.