ERA18FA251 · Columbia Aircraft Mfg LC41 550FG
Columbia Aircraft Mfg LC41 550FG · Accident: loss of control in flight on approach
From Republic Airport (FRG) to Laurence G Hanscom Field (BED)
Event
- NTSB case
- ERA18FA251
- 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
- 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
Columbia Aircraft Mfg LC41 550FG
- Aircraft type
- Columbia LC41
- 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
- N2536T
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Republic Airport (FRG), Farmingdale, NYTo Laurence G Hanscom Field (BED), Bedford, MA
- Aircraft age
- About 12 years (built 2006)
- 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 final 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
- Environmental issues › Conditions/weather/phenomena
- Personnel issues › Psychological
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The instrument-rated pilot and one passenger were approaching the destination airport following an instrument flight rules cross-country flight in instrument meteorological conditions; the reported weather at the destination included ceilings between 400 and 600 ft above ground level and visibility of 2 miles in mist. The controller cleared the airplane for the instrument landing system (ILS) approach; the pilot intercepted the localizer and immediately descended below the minimum altitude he was required to maintain prior to crossing the final approach fix (FAF). The controller issued a low altitude alert as the airplane was crossing the FAF about 700 ft below the minimum altitude. The pilot responded that he was climbing; he did not report any problems or issues with his airplane to the controller. The airplane then drifted right of the localizer course and the controller advised the pilot of such, but there was no response. The airplane subsequently proceeded left of the localizer course, after which the controller issued another low altitude alert and asked the pilot if he was still on the approach. The pilot responded that he was not on the approach and that he was "pulling." During the final minute of the flight, the airplane was observed in rapid, turning climbs and descents until radar contact was lost.
The airplane impacted terrain about 4.2 miles east-southeast of the airport. Accident site evidence and impact damage to the airplane were indicative of a high-velocity impact. Examination of the wreckage revealed no evidence of any preimpact mechanical anomalies, and analysis of a video doorbell that captured audio of the airplane in flight revealed an engine speed consistent with high power.
The reduced visibility conditions present at the time of the accident and the high workload associated with the instrument approach were conducive to the onset of pilot spatial disorientation, and the airplane's erratic maneuvering and the high-energy impact are both consistent with the known effects of spatial disorientation. Therefore, it is likely that the pilot became spatially disoriented during the instrument approach, which resulted in a loss of airplane control.
Probable cause
The pilots' loss of control during an instrument approach in instrument meteorological conditions as a result of spatial disorientation.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ERA18FA251
- Event ID
- 20180915X23852
- Case number
- ERA18FA251
- 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. 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: f95f9bda5db7b1dea7a2a698c386a33df02c5d2392cf4246721fe91bf2e1868e; retrieved 2026-09-15T06:48:06.947Z.