BFO86FA005 · Piper PA-23-250
Piper PA-23-250 · Accident: loss of control in flight on approach
From Elmira Corning Regional Airport (ELM) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- BFO86FA005
- 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
- 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
- N54136
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Elmira Corning Regional Airport (ELM), Elmira, NYTo 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 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
- 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
- Loss of control in flight
- 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
- Reason for occurrence undetermined
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THERE WAS NO WX RPRTG STN AT COATESVILLE, BUT APRX 25 MI ESE AT PHILADELPHIA, THE FORECAST WAS FOR OCNL CEILINGS OF 600'OVERCAST, VIS 3 MI WITH LGT RAIN SHOWERS & FOG. THERE WERE FLT PRCTNS FOR TURBC BLO 5000' DUE TO WND SHEAR, CEILINGS & VIS FREQ BLO 1000' & 3 MI WITH STRATUS, LGT DRIZZLE & FOG. DRG ARRIVAL, THE ACFT WAS VECTORED FOR A VOR RWY 29 APCH (ILSWAS OUT OF SVC). ON HIS 1ST ATTEMPT, THE PLT MADE A MISSED APCH. HE GOT VECTORS TO FLY THE APCH AGAIN & SAID HE WOULD PROCEED TO PHILADELPHIA, IF A LNDG COULD NOT BE COMPLETED. ON THE 2ND APCH, THE ACFT DSCNDD BLO RADAR COVERAGE AT 1800' MSL, APRX 3 MI ESE OF THE ARPT. SUBSEQUENTLY, IT CRASHED APRX 1 MI NNE OF THE RWY THRESHOLD, WHILE IN A STEEP NOSE DWN ATTITUDE. THE MAIN WRECKAGE CAME TO REST 44' NNE OF THE PRINCIPAL IMPACT POINT. NO PREIMPACT MECHANICAL PROBLEMS WERE FOUND. THE STABILATOR TRIM WAS NOTED IN THE FULL NOSE DWN POSITION; BUT THE SYS'S INTEGRITY WAS NOT MAINTAINED DRG THE ACDNT. WX STUDY INDCD CLD BASES WERE AT 900' MSL. MIN DSCNT ALT (MDA) FOR THE APCH WAS 1060' MSL; ARPT ELEV WAS 662'.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record BFO86FA005
- Event ID
- 20001214X38191
- Case number
- BFO86FA005
- 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 1985-11-12.
- API snapshot SHA-256: d91b274aac23c5e02e17ba78a6a7b0c201824076f628cbb31265cf5745089a14; retrieved 2026-09-18T14:24:15.251Z.