- Date
- March 17, 1991, 19:49 local (Mar 18, 1991, 01:49 UTC)
- Place
- Thief River Fls, MN
- Injuries
- 4 fatal
- Damage
- Destroyed
- Phase of flight
- Approach
- Aircraft
- N8290YPiper PA-30
- Weather
- Instrument (IMC) · Night/dark
- Status
- Completed · report January 27, 1993
- Report
- Approved by Office Director
- FAA report
- 19910317009269A
- Case key
- 14896
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
Improper IFR procedure of the pilot, while intercepting the ILS localizer, by not maintianing the minimum descent altitude (mda) for that segment of the approach.
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 was adzd that the 1745 CST wx was 500' bkn, 1000' ovc, vis 3-1/2 mi with fog. He made an ILS rwy 31 apch, but at 1928 CST, he rprtd a missed apch. He stated that he had seen 'the lights' & requested another apch. The acft was vectored for a 2nd ILS. When it was about 5 mi from the outer marker (faf), the plt was clrd for the apch & to change to an adzy freq. However, about 3 mi se of the faf, the acft flew into level terrain, while still on a westerly hdg. Min dscnt alt (mda) for this segment of the apch was 2700' MSL; the arpt elev was 1116'). No preimpact part failure or malfunction of the airframe or eng was found. The 1945 CST wx at the arpt had deteriorated to 200' ovc & 1/4 mi vis with fog.
Aircraft
- Registration
- N8290Y
- Reported as
- Piper PA-30
- Category
- Airplane
- Serial number
- 30-1428
- Engine
- Lycoming IO-320, 160 horsepower, reciprocating
- Damage
- Destroyed
- Flight
- Business · Part 91
- Operator
- June I. Steiger
- Departed
- BZN · Bozeman, MT
- Flight plan
- IFR
- Airport
- TVF · Thief River Regional, runway 31, 6,503 × 150 ft
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
- 61
- Certificate
- Private
- Airplane ratings
- Single-engine land, Multi-engine land
- Instrument ratings
- Airplane
- Medical
- Class 3, Valid Medical--w/ waivers/lim
- Seat
- Left
- Toxicology
- Performed
- Flight hours
- 2,400 total
Weather
- Conditions
- Instrument (IMC) · Night/dark
- Wind
- Calm
- Lowest ceiling
- 200 ft broken
- Temperature
- 34 °F, dew point 28 °F
- Altimeter
- 29.00 inHg
- Observed at
- TVF
FAA reports on this event · 1
The FAA’s own accident and incident reports, matched to the aircraft by N-number and date.