BFO92LA007 · Stinson 108
Stinson 108 · Accident: in flight encounter with weather en route
From Statesville, NC to MERCER COUNTY, WV
Narrative check · The NTSB narrative appears to contradict this record's departure or destination. Values are shown as recorded, not corrected; compare with the narrative.
Event
- NTSB case
- BFO92LA007
- 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
Stinson 108
- Aircraft type
- Stinson 108
- 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
- N97684
- Operator
- Larry D. Misenhelder · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route Possible conflict
- From Statesville, NCTo MERCER COUNTY, WV
- 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
- En route · descent
- 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 encounter with weather
- 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
- Visual flight rules (VFR) flight into instrument meteorological conditions (IMC)
- 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 › VFR flight into imc, intentional
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
DURING A CROSS COUNTRY FLIGHT FROM MYRTLE BEACH, SOUTH CAROLINA TO CLARKSBURG, WEST VIRGINIA, THE NON-INSTRUMENT RATED PRIVATE PILOT DESCENDED THROUGH AN OVERCAST AND COLLIDED WITH TREES. THE PILOT STATED THAT HE HAD OBTAINED A COMPUTER RADAR WEATHER REPORT IN STATESVILLE, NORTH CAROLINA, WHICH WAS REPORTING 4500 FEET CEILING AND 20 MILES VISIBILITY. ACCORDING TO THE FAA, WHILE EN ROUTE TO HIS DESTINATION, THE PILOT CLIMBED AS HIGH AS 9000 FEET TO AVOID THE CLOUDS. AFTER CROSSING THE FIRST MOUNTAIN RIDGE, HE DESCENDED TO 500 FEET. HE STATED THAT HE SLOWED THE AIRCRAFT TO 70 KNOTS AND CONTINUED HIS DESCENT SO AS TO REGAIN SIGHT OF THE GROUND. THE NEAREST WEATHER STATION, ABOUT 10 MILES AWAY, REPORTED THE WEATHER AS OBSCURED SKY AND ONE-EIGHT OF A MILE VISIBILITY IN LIGHT DRIZZLE AND FOG.
Probable cause
THE PILOT'S INTENTIONAL FLIGHT INTO INSTRUMENT METEOROLOGICAL CONDITIONS. CONTRIBUTING TO THE ACCIDENT WAS THE LOW CEILING IN CONJUNCTION WITH THE MOUNTAINOUS TERRAIN AND THE PILOT'S OVER CONFIDENCE.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record BFO92LA007
- Event ID
- 20001212X18417
- Case number
- BFO92LA007
- 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: 9c99d0aeeaaabdd8741ff0fd6697ce59139b91ace07f2a1c4b0ec4f0558fd592; retrieved 2026-09-21T15:14:25.517Z.