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NYC91FA025 · Beech A36

7 Nov 1990 · Bradford, PA, United States

Beech A36 · Accident: in flight encounter with weather en route

From Norwood Memorial Airport (OWD) to Eugene F. Kranz Toledo Express Airport (TOL)

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Event

NTSB case
NYC91FA025
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

Beech A36

Aircraft type
Beechcraft 36
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
N422M
Onboard fatalities
Unknown
Route
From Norwood Memorial Airport (OWD), Norwood, MATo Eugene F. Kranz Toledo Express Airport (TOL), Toledo, OH
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 · cruise
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
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 › Altitude, inadequate

Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.

NTSB narrative

AT 1948 THE PILOT HAD REQUESTED A LOWER ALTITUDE, AT 1958 REPORTED HAVING DIFFICULTY MAINTAINING ALTITUDE, AND AT 2003 ADVISED HE NEEDED TO LAND AS SOON AS POSSIBLE. WHILE BEING SUBSEQUENTLY VECTORED HE REPORTED HE WAS STILL PICKING UP SOME ICE BUT ABLE TO MAINTAIN AIRSPEED. HE WAS CLEARED FOR AN ILS RWY 32 APPROACH INTP BRADFORD REGIONAL. AT 2037 THE PILOT REPORTED '...I HAVE THE AIRPORT.' RADAR CONTACT WAS LOST AT THE VOR (LOM). THE WRECKAGE PATH WAS ON AN EASTERLY HEADING. TREE DAMAGE INDICATED THE AIRPLANE WAS IN ABOUT A 30 DEG LEFT WING LOW ATTITUDE. THE LANDING GEAR WAS DOWN.

Probable cause

THE PILOT'S FAILURE TO MAINTAIN ADEQUATE TERRAIN CLEARANCE WHILE MANEUVERING TO LAND DURING AN INSTRUMENT APPROACH. FACTORS RELATED TO THE ACCIDENT WERE: THE PILOT'S FAILURE TO OBTAIN A WEATHER BRIEFING PRIOR TO DEPARTURE, HIS DELAYED DECISION TO MAKE AN EMERGECY LANDING AFTER ENCOUNTERING ICING CONDITIONS EN ROUTE, ICE ACCUMULATION ON THE AIRPLANE, AND THE DARK NIGHT.

Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset

Sources

NTSB record NYC91FA025
Event ID
20001212X24673
Case number
NYC91FA025
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: local date, investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
  • The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 1990-11-08.
  • API snapshot SHA-256: 4ac1d8afe51f661eeecbd79f47d7a5fa9ea4d6a3a246b632b11ad8e4ff5cbb16; retrieved 2026-09-21T02:05:35.446Z.