BFO89FA003 · Piper PA-28RT-201 PA-28RT-20
Piper PA-28RT-201 PA-28RT-20 · Accident: in flight collision with terrain/water on approach
From Louisville Muhammad Ali International Airport (SDF) to Frederick Municipal Airport (FDK)
Event
- NTSB case
- BFO89FA003
- 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
- 1 · 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-28RT-201 PA-28RT-20
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-28
- 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
- N8291Z
- Operator
- Ronald L. Spring · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Louisville Muhammad Ali International Airport (SDF), Louisville, KYTo Frederick Municipal Airport (FDK), Frederick, MD
- 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 initial 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 › Proper altitude, not maintained
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
DRG ARR, DULLES APCH CTL (IAD) CLRD FLT TO FREDERICK TVOR (FDK) AT 4000' & TRMTD RADAR CTL WITH HANDOFF TO BALTIMORE APCH CTL (BWI). FLT WAS CLRD FOR ILS RWY 23 APCH & TOLD TO RPRT IBND ON APCH. PROC FOR APCH WAS TO FLY OBND ON FDK 048 DEG RADIAL TO RICKE INT/OM, MAKE PROC TURN (MIN ALT 2300'), RTRN TO OM ON ILS COURSE (HDG 229 DEG, MIN ALT 1600') & INTERCEPT GLIDE PATH. HOWEVER, FLT DEPD FDK ON NORTHERLY & SOMEWHAT ERRATIC COURSE. BWI DID NOT HAVE POSITIVE RADAR CTC (RCVD ONLY 2 RTRNS DRG ARR & NO RTRNS BLO 3800'). ABEAM RICKE INT/OM, ACFT MNVRD (AS IF IN A PROC TURN). AS IT WAS TURNING BACK TWD FDK, PLT RPRTD 'PROC TURN IBND, RWY 23' & WAS CLRD TO ADZY FREQ (NO FURTHER RDO CTC WITH ACFT). ACFT THEN TURNED WEST. AFTER MNVRG ABT 8 MIN, IT HIT MTS ABT 7 MI NW OF ARPT (ELEV 1700') ON HDG TWD FDK. IAD HAD RADAR CTC &MIN SAFE ALT WARNING (MSAW) OCCURRED BFR ACDNT. IAD CTLR DIDN'T TRY ALERTING BWI OR PLT, BUT MSAW WAS AFTER PLT WAS CLRDTO ADZY FREQ. CANCELED NOTAM STILL ISSUED AS ACTIVE, BUT FDK WAS PLT'S HOME BASE.
Probable cause
NONSUBMITTED
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record BFO89FA003
- Event ID
- 20001213X26992
- Case number
- BFO89FA003
- 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: 6d9e4e59f47c156c478baf2655d118c91fba8f0d59e81f16bbde58a0891a925a; retrieved 2026-09-21T03:30:43.193Z.