Status:	Final
Date:	10 AUG 1968
Time:	08:57
Type:	Fairchild FH-227B
Operator:	Piedmont Airlines
Registration:	N712U
C/n / msn:	557
First flight:	1967
Total airframe hrs:	2197
Engines:	2 Rolls Royce 532-7 Dart
Crew:	Fatalities: 3 / Occupants: 3
Passengers:	Fatalities: 32 / Occupants: 34
Total:	Fatalities: 35 / Occupants: 37
Airplane damage:	Written off
Airplane fate:	Written off (damaged beyond repair)
Location:	Charleston, WV (United States of America)
Phase:	Approach (APR)
Nature:	Domestic Scheduled Passenger
Departure airport:	Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky Airport, KY (CVG/KCVG), United States of America
Destination airport:	Charleston-Kanawha County Airport, WV (CRW/KCRW), United States of America
Flightnumber:	230

Narrative:
Piedmont flight 230 was on an ILS localizer only approach to Charleston-Kanawha County Airport (CRW) runway 23 when it struck trees 360 feet from the runway threshold. The aircraft continued and struck up sloping terrain (+30deg) 250 feet short in a 4-5deg nose down attitude, slightly left wing down. The Fairchild continued up the hill and on to the airport, coming to rest 6 feet beyond the threshold and 50 feet from the right edge of the runway.
A layer of dense fog (about 150 feet thick) was obscuring the threshold and about half of the approach lights. Visual conditions existed outside the fog area.

PROBABLE CAUSE: "An unrecognized loss of altitude orientation during the final portion of an approach into shallow, dense fog. The disorientation was caused by a rapid reduction in the ground guidance segment available to the pilot at a point beyond which a go-around could not be successfully effected."

Events:

Sources:
» ICAO Circular 107-AN/81 (p.283-302)