NTSB Factual Report

On July 21, 1993, about 1810 central daylight time, a Beechcraft A23 airplane, N3578R, was destroyed by in-flight collision with a vehicle and terrain, and postimpact fire, during an aborted landing at Boyceville Municipal Airport, Boyceville, Wisconsin. The solo private pilot was fatally injured. The flight operated in visual meteorological conditions without flight plan under 14 CFR Part 91.

Witnesses reported the airplane appeared to touchdown too fast and too far down runway 4 to stop. They heard the engine speed increase rapidly and saw the airplane liftoff at the very end of the runway. The airplane then collided with a pickup truck driving on State Highway 170, the roadway adjacent to the departure end of runway 4. The airplane continued in a northerly direction and came to rest near a railroad track. The airplane immediately caught fire. The pilot was seen walking away from the wreckage and collapsing. One witness spoke with the pilot shortly after the accident. The witness asked the pilot what happened, and the witness reports that the pilot responded, "I came in too fast and ran out of runway."

The driver of the pickup truck and his two juvenile children riding with him received minor injuries. The driver told a Sheriff's Deputy that he was driving west on State Highway 170 when he saw the airplane about five feet before it struck the truck. He said that he knew the airplane was going to strike his truck (a 1986 Ford Ranger), and that he just had time to lie down atop his two children.

State Highway 170 skirts the northern perimeter of the Boyceville Airport. The estimated distance from the end of the runway to the highway is twenty-five yards.

The pilot received severe burns and died July 24, 1994.

NTSB Probable Cause

the failure of the pilot to attain the proper touchdown point, and his failure to perform a go-around.