- Date
- April 14, 1985, 20:55 local (Apr 15, 1985, 02:55 UTC)
- Place
- Patterson, LA
- Injuries
- 4 uninjured
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Phase of flight
- Landing
- Aircraft
- N808WMitsubishi MU2J
- Weather
- Visual (VMC) · Night/bright
- Status
- Completed
- Report
- Approved by Office Director
- FAA report
- 19850414014549A
- Case key
- 21722
From the NTSB’s public API. By law, NTSB reports can’t be used as evidence in lawsuits over the accident.
On this page
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
On visual final apch to the arpt at night the acft entered ground fog. Reflection of the landing lights in the fog was distracting. The acft landed in the adjacent seaplane landing area instead of on the hard surface rwy. A subsequent inspection of the aprt disclosed differenciation btw the colored lights of the waterway and the white lights on the rwy was only effective when both sets of lights were visible, a condition which is less likely to occur when it is most needed; I.e. in conditions of reduced visibility or at lower altitudes above the ground. The inspection also revealed the waterway lights were brighter; the intensity of the rwy lights could not be changed by radio.
Aircraft
- Registration
- N808W
- Reported as
- Mitsubishi MU2J
- Category
- Airplane
- Serial number
- 609
- Airframe hours
- 4,300
- Engine
- Garrett TPE331-6-251M, 724 horsepower, turbo prop
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Flight
- Business · Part 91
- Registered owner
- Commander Air Service
- Airworthiness certificate
- Standard, Normal
- Last inspection
- 100 hour · April 1, 1985 · 20 hours before
- Departed
- T86 · Houston, TX
- Flight plan
- VFR
- Airport
- PTN · Patterson, runway 22, 4,500 × 100 ft, water
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
- 62
- Certificate
- Airline transport
- Airplane ratings
- Multi-engine land, Single-engine land
- Instrument ratings
- Airplane
- Medical
- Class 2, Valid Medical--w/ waivers/lim
- Seat
- Left
- Flight hours
- 12,070 total · 2,500 in this make and model · 12,000 as pilot in command · 18 in the last 90 days · 6 in the last 24 hours
Weather
- Conditions
- Visual (VMC) · Night/bright
- Wind
- Calm
- Visibility
- 20 statute miles
- Lowest ceiling
- None
- Temperature
- 70 °F, dew point 61 °F
- Altimeter
- 30.00 inHg
FAA reports on this event · 1
The FAA’s own accident and incident reports, matched to the aircraft by N-number and date.