April 11, Pomona, N.J. / Beech Bonanza

At 1625 eastern time, a Beech A36 struck trees during an approach to Atlantic City International Airport. The pilot was killed. The pilot made two attempts to shoot the ILS Rwy 13 approach. During the first approach, the controller issued vectors numerous times to assist the pilot in intercepting the localizer. The airplane descended well below the glideslope and the controller twice issued climb instructions. During the missed approach, the controller offered a surveillance approach, which the pilot accepted. As the airplane was being vectored, the pilot requested another try at the ILS. During the second approach, the pilot passed through the localizer and the controller elected to initiat...

Gemini Sparkle

Key Takeaways:

  • A pilot was killed when a Beech A36 crashed during an approach to Atlantic City International Airport after multiple attempts to land.
  • The pilot struggled significantly with two ILS approaches, failing to intercept the localizer and maintain glideslope, requiring repeated assistance and climb instructions from air traffic control.
  • During a subsequent surveillance approach, the pilot had difficulty with radio communication and failed to respond to multiple ATC instructions to correct heading, with the aircraft last observed at 300 feet altitude 1.3 nautical miles from the runway.
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At 1625 eastern time, a Beech A36 struck trees during an approach to Atlantic City International Airport. The pilot was killed. The pilot made two attempts to shoot the ILS Rwy 13 approach. During the first approach, the controller issued vectors numerous times to assist the pilot in intercepting the localizer. The airplane descended well below the glideslope and the controller twice issued climb instructions. During the missed approach, the controller offered a surveillance approach, which the pilot accepted. As the airplane was being vectored, the pilot requested another try at the ILS. During the second approach, the pilot passed through the localizer and the controller elected to initiate a surveillance approach and instructed the pilot to contact the final approach controller. Four attempts were necessary for the pilot to read back the correct final approach control frequency. The pilot received a step-down altitude and a heading. When the airplane was 2.5 nautical miles from the approach end of runway 13, at an assigned altitude of 1,000 feet, it began to divert to the south. The controller advised the pilot to correct his heading; however, no response was received. The controller issued the next assigned step-down altitude of 700 feet, and again issued vectors to correct the pilots heading. No response was received from the pilot. The airplane then appeared to level off at an altitude of 300 feet, on an approximate heading of 145 degrees, for about 20 seconds. The last radar contact was 1.3 nautical miles west northwest of runway 13, at 300 feet. The pilot had logged about 2,000 hours of flight time.

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