MIA08FA163 · Beech G35
Beech G35 · Accident: loss of control in flight on approach
From Francis S Gabreski Airport (FOK) to Boston Logan International Airport (BOS)
Event
- NTSB case
- MIA08FA163
- 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
- 3 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- Unknown
- 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 G35
- Aircraft type
- Beechcraft 35
- 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
- N4615D
- Operator
- Joseph E. Baker · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Francis S Gabreski Airport (FOK), Westhampton, NYTo Boston Logan International Airport (BOS), Boston, MA
- 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
- Defining eventThe 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
- Aircraft › Aircraft oper/perf/capability
- Personnel issues › Task performance
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, not marked as estimated; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The instrument rated pilot was a volunteer pilot for a charity organization that connects pilots and aircraft owners with individuals in need of transportation primarily for medical purposes. The pilot was not instrument current. In addition, the charity did not verify instrument currency of volunteer pilots nor were they required to. After takeoff, the flight proceeded towards the destination airport on an instrument flight rules clearance and was vectored onto the downwind and base legs for sequencing. The pilot made two errors related to incorrect heading changes both of which were not immediately detected by the controller, but neither were significant. While on the base leg and approximately 1.5 miles west of the final approach course for runway 4R, the controller instructed the pilot to fly heading 060 degrees to intercept the final approach course. Radar data depicted a large radius turn towards the left, and the airplane flying through the final approach course. When the flight was approximately 1.6 miles east of the final approach course, the controller advised the pilot he had passed through the course and instructed him to turn to a heading of 010 degrees to re-intercept. Radar depicted a tight radius turn past the assigned heading, while the airplane descended below the assigned altitude of 3,000 feet. The airplane then turned to the north, then southeast with altitude deviations descending so low the controller issued several low altitude alerts. The airplane then entered a final descent, immerged from the base of clouds, and impacted into a parking lot. Examination of the engine, airframe, and avionics did not reveal any preimpact failures or malfunctions.
Probable cause
The pilot's failure to maintain control of the airplane while attempting to execute an instrument approach in instrument meteorological conditions. Contributing to the accident was the pilot's lack of instrument currency.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record MIA08FA163
- Event ID
- 20080825X01301
- Case number
- MIA08FA163
- Dataset
- full-current
- Source SHA-256
- 5cf380f0061817c0331a6b2d8cc7e0ee3a79bea469a1001dc5c10e56f35f5ab3
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, coordinates. 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: 318360a5e071bff6eca9a3637aab49483bcd922085ef88351c0ee19d4b7fa039; retrieved 2026-09-13T19:22:54.040Z.