Accident Fairchild FH-227B N712U, Saturday 10 August 1968

Date:	Saturday 10 August 1968
Time:	08:57
Type:	Fairchild FH-227B
Owner/operator:	Piedmont Airlines
Registration:	N712U
MSN:	557
Year of manufacture:	1967
Total airframe hrs:	2197 hours
Engine model:	Rolls-Royce Dart 532-7
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 35 / Occupants: 37
Other fatalities:	0
Aircraft damage:	Destroyed, written off
Category:	Accident
Location:	Charleston-Kanawha County Airport, WV (CRW) - United States of America
Phase:	Approach
Nature:	Passenger - Scheduled
Departure airport:	Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky Airport, KY (CVG/KCVG)
Destination airport:	Charleston-Kanawha County Airport, WV (CRW/KCRW)
Investigating agency:	NTSB
Confidence Rating:	Accident investigation report completed and information captured

Narrative:
Piedmont flight 230 was on an ILS localizer 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."

Accident investigation: