BFO85FA002 · Piper PA-32R-301
Piper PA-32R-301 · Accident: in flight collision with object on approach
From Lincoln Park Airport (N07) to Salisbury Ocean City Wicomico Regional Airport (SBY)
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
- BFO85FA002
- 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
- 4 · 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-32R-301
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-32
- 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
- N81752
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route Possible conflict
- From Lincoln Park Airport (N07), Lincoln Park, NJTo Salisbury Ocean City Wicomico Regional Airport (SBY), Salisbury, 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 · circling (IFR)
- 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
- Destroyed
Cause areas
- Pilot in command › Descent, inadvertent
- Pilot in command › IFR procedure, improper
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
AFTER CONTACTING MILLVILLE FSS 4 TIMES FOR WX INFO THE ACFT DEPARTED LINCOLN PARK, NY, AT 1858 EDT WITH DESTINATION LISTED ON THE IFR FLT PLAN AS EASTON, MD. EN ROUTE THE PLT DIVERTED TO SALISBURY, MD, DUE TO WX. AFTER BEING CLEARED FORTHE RWY 32 ILS THE ACFT TURNED NORTHWEST INSTEAD OF SOUTHEAST AFTER CROSSING THE VOR & DESCENDED TO BETWEEN 700 AND 900 FT MSL WHILE HEADING AWAY FROM THE ARPT. AFTER BEING REORIENTED THE PLT WAS TOLD TO REPORT AT THE COLBE LOM INBOUND. PLTPROCEEDED TO CALL COLBE WHEN ACTUALLY OVER SALISBURY VOR. N81752 CONTINUED THE APCH CONCLUDING BY STATING HE WAS CIRCLING TO LAND. THE ACFT COLLIDED WITH TREES ON A NORTHWEST HEADING OFF THE APCH END OF RWY 32. THE PLT HAD OBTAINED HIS INSTRUMENT RATING 3 MONTHS PRIOR AND AT THAT TIME HAD LOGGED 34 INSTRUMENT HOURS AND 21 NIGHT HOURS. POST CRASH FIRE DESTROYED THE MAJORITY OF THE FUSELAGE, HOWEVER, EXAMINATION OF THE ACFT AND ENGINE DID NOT REVEAL ANYTHING THAT WOULD HAVE AFFECTED NORMAL OPERATION.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record BFO85FA002
- Event ID
- 20001214X41288
- Case number
- BFO85FA002
- 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 1984-10-25.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 454ba3500d9b585eee46b3cabe4706c0f51d426be2a66bef96bcf777998e6118; retrieved 2026-09-21T05:16:38.474Z.