NYC92LA020 · Piper PA-23-250
Better Val-U Piper PA-23-250 · Accident: in flight collision with object on approach
From Grand Strand Airport (CRE) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- NYC92LA020
- 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
- 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
- N14256
- Operator
- Better Val-U
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Grand Strand Airport (CRE), N. MYRTLE BEACH, SCTo 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
- 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
- Substantial
Cause areas
- Pilot in command › Minimum descent altitude
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Groton, CT, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
THE INSTRUMENT RATED PRIVATE PILOT HAD FLOWN IN IMC CONDITIONS ON TWO IFR FLIGHT PLANS THROUGHOUT THE DAY FROM MIAMI, FLORIDA TO GROTON, CONNECTICUT. HE HAD UPDATED HIS DESTINATION AND ALTERNATE WEATHER WHILE EN ROUTE AND KNEW OF THE CONTINUING CONDITIONS. AFTER REPORTING BABET INTERSECTION AND RECEIVING CLEARANCE FOR THE APPROACH TO LAND FOR RUNWAY 23, THE PILOT DESCENDED THE AIRPLANE TO APPROXIMATELY 680 FEET MSL AND ENGAGED THE AUTOPILOT. THE AIRPLANE DESCENDED SLOWLY BELOW THE MINIMUM DESCENT ALTITUDE AND IMPACTED A WOODED AREA APPROXIMATELY 1.5 MILES FROM THE AIRPORT. THE PILOT WAS VISUALLY SCANNING OUT THE AIRPLANE'S WINDOW AND DID NOT NOTE THE DESCENT BEFORE IMPACT. HE REPORTED NO FAILURES TO ANY AIRPLANE SYSTEM OR RADIOS. THE FAA COORDINATOR FOUND NOTHING UNUSUAL WITH THE AIRPLANE AND DID STATE THAT THE PILOT REPORTED BEING TIRED AT THE TIME OF THE APPROACH. THE MINIMUM DESCENT ALTITUDE WAS 660 FEET.
Probable cause
THE PILOT'S FAILURE TO MAINTAIN THE MINIMUM DESCENT ALTITUDE DURING THE APPROACH. A FACTOR WAS PILOT FATIGUE.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record NYC92LA020
- Event ID
- 20001212X18380
- Case number
- NYC92LA020
- 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: fc789ee72c6c288aedb8d08cd4bddd2ee2d26cf1f32a34efafdae6c56b0f08d9; retrieved 2026-09-21T15:15:26.982Z.