- Date
- May 4, 1990, 07:31 local (11:31 UTC)
- Place
- Wilmington, NC
- Injuries
- 2 fatal
- Damage
- Destroyed
- Phase of flight
- Approach
- Aircraft
- N418NEGovernment Aircraft Fact N24A
- Weather
- Instrument (IMC) · Day
- Status
- Completed · report June 19, 1991
- Report
- Approved by Office Director
- FAA report
- 19900504013869A
- Case key
- 8126
From the NTSB’s public API. By law, NTSB reports can’t be used as evidence in lawsuits over the accident.
On this page
Probable cause
The pilot's failure to maintain sufficient altitude during a circling maneuver for landing. Factors related to the accident were: weather conditions below minimums for a circling approach, and failure of the pilot to follow IFR procedures.
Sequence of events
NTSB’s coding before 2008: each occurrence and phase of flight, and the causes and factors under it. The codes are defined in NTSB’s coding manual.
Analysis
During arrival, the plt made an ILS localizer backcourse apch to rwy 16 & was cleared to land. He rprtd he was initiating a missed apch. Aprx 10 seconds later, he rprtd the rwy in sight & requested a visual apch to land on rwy 34. The plt was cleared to land & the acft was observed to maneuver to the right (west of the rwy), then turn back left to a final apch. However, it crashed short of rwy 35. An exam of the crash site revealed evidence that the acft was in a normal upright attitude on a heading of 340 deg, when it crashed. Initial impact was with the apch lighting system short of rwy 34. A king-air plt, who landed on rwy 16 before the acdnt, estimated the cloud bases were about 400' AGL. Min dscnt alt (mda) for the backcourse apch was 460' MSL. Mda for a circling apch to rwy 16 was 550' MSL. The arpt elevation was 32'.
Aircraft
- Registration
- N418NE
- Reported as
- Government Aircraft Fact N24A
- Category
- Airplane
- Serial number
- N24-89
- Airframe hours
- 3,590
- Engine
- Allison 250-B17C, 420 horsepower, turbo prop
- Damage
- Destroyed
- Fire
- On-Ground
- Flight
- Part 135
- Operator
- Dolphin Aviation, doing business as Tar Heel Aviation
- Airworthiness certificate
- Standard, Normal
- Last inspection
- AAIP · April 14, 1990 · 20 hours before
- Departed
- RDU · Raleigh, NC
- Flight plan
- IFR
- Airport
- ILM · New Hanover, runway 34, 7,001 × 150 ft, asphalt
Matched to the registry by N-number and the event date; the registry’s history has gaps, so older matches can be wrong. Compare the reported make and model.
Flight crew
As NTSB recorded them. NTSB leaves out names.
- Role
- Pilot
- Age
- 26
- Certificate
- Commercial
- Airplane ratings
- Single-engine land, Multi-engine land
- Instrument ratings
- Airplane
- Medical
- Class 2, Valid Medical--w/ waivers/lim
- Seat
- Left
- Toxicology
- Performed
- Flight hours
- 2,200 total · 99 in the last 90 days · 30 in the last 30 days · 1 in the last 24 hours
Weather
- Conditions
- Instrument (IMC) · Day
- Wind
- 150° at 5 knots
- Visibility
- 1 statute miles
- Lowest ceiling
- 800 ft broken
- Temperature
- -0 °F, dew point -0 °F
- Observed at
- ILM
FAA reports on this event · 1
The FAA’s own accident and incident reports, matched to the aircraft by N-number and date.