- Date
- December 1, 1982, 22:05 local (Dec 2, 1982, 03:05 UTC)
- Place
- Douglassville, PA
- Injuries
- 3 fatal, 2 serious
- Damage
- Destroyed
- Phase of flight
- Approach
- Aircraft
- N32750Piper PA-32-260
- Weather
- Instrument (IMC) · Night/dark
- Status
- Completed · report December 1, 1983
- Report
- Approved by Office Director
- FAA report
- 19821201063819A
- Case key
- 70498
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
At aprx 1540 EST, the acft was dispatched to philadelphia, PA on a pax flt. After arriving, the plt remained there to pick up 4 other pax that were arriving at approx 2100 EST. At 2007, the plt received a partial wx brief & filed an IFR flt plan to rtn to pottstown. The acft departed with an IFR clnc at 2145 & proceeded at 3000 ft MSL, just abv the cld tops. Drg arrival, the plt was clrd for a vor-b apch to the pottstown muni arpt. He rprtd that he could see the arpt beacon from over the VOR, but noted patchy gnd fog. The apch was contd to the missed apch point where he lost site of the bcn. He bgn making a missed apch; however, when the throttle was advanced, no difference in eng sound was noted, except he recalled there may have been some "flutter in the engine." Rprtdly, the acft contd dsndg & slowing til it hit trees at 440 ft MSL, aprx 1 mi nw of the arpt (arpt elev 256 ft). No preimpact failure was found. Temp & dew pt were 48 deg, icg prob chart indicated serious carb icg conds were present. However, psn of carb heat ctl could not be verified.
Aircraft
- Registration
- N32750
- Reported as
- Piper PA-32-260
- Category
- Airplane
- Serial number
- 32-7500008
- Airframe hours
- 3,745
- Engine
- Lycoming O-540-E4B5, 260 horsepower, reciprocating
- Damage
- Destroyed
- Fire
- On-Ground
- Flight
- Part 135
- Operator
- Basco Flying Service, Inc.
- Registered owner
- Basco Flying Service, Inc.
- Departed
- PHL · Philadelphia, PA
- Destination
- N47 · Pottstown, PA
- Flight plan
- IFR
- Airport
- N47 · Pottstown Municipal, runway 25, 2,700 × 75 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
- 41
- Certificates
- Flight instructor, Commercial
- Airplane ratings
- Single-engine land, Multi-engine land
- Instrument ratings
- Airplane
- Medical
- Class 1, Valid Medical--w/ waivers/lim
- Flight hours
- 3,716 total · 100 in this make and model · 3,479 as pilot in command · 268 in the last 90 days · 84 in the last 30 days · 2 in the last 24 hours
Weather
- Conditions
- Instrument (IMC) · Night/dark
- Wind
- Calm
- Lowest ceiling
- 400 ft
- Temperature
- 118 °F
- Altimeter
- 30.00 inHg
- Observed at
- RDG, 15 nm away
FAA reports on this event · 1
The FAA’s own accident and incident reports, matched to the aircraft by N-number and date.