Narrative:

The flight departed on a canned flight plan and climbed up to 8;000 ft and was doing 115-125 over the ground. On the enroute portion of the flight the weather at my destination dropped to 1-3/4 SM and 500 overcast. I was cleared for the approach. Once inside the taa for the approach I descended according to the taa. I crossed over initial approach fix and started a descent down to 2;200 ft at the first waypoint and 1;500 ft at the next point. Upon crossing the second waypoint I broke out and saw a tree I maneuvered the plane to the right because the tree was on the left in hopes of avoiding it. As a turned the airplane I pushed all of my levers forward and started a climbout on the missed approach. Once I had started a climb I put the gear and flaps up. Once I reached a safe altitude I assessed the airplane by first looking at my engines gauges and they were both reading normal. Secondly I looked outside the airplane to see if there was any damage done to the left side and the only thing I saw was the left oil door had opened up. Lastly I looked at my fuel gauges and they were both still reading sufficient of a tank on the mains and on the outboards. With this information I contacted center and told them I would like to head direct to a nearby major airport. It was the safest opinion because the weather was higher there; fire and rescue was there. I climbed up to 9;000 ft and proceeded direct to my divert airport. Once I checked on with approach I declared an emergency as a precaution. Approach asked me how many souls and fuel I had remaining. I had 5 people onboard including myself and 1hr and 45 minutes of fuel remaining. Approach asked if I would like the ILS to runway xxl and I said yes. I flew the approach broke out; landed and taxied back to the company's ramp.I missed read the approach plate and was low on the approach due to it.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A PA-31 pilot collided with a tree at a remote airport after he misread the RNAV GPS Approach plate and descended to minimums nearly 3 miles from the airport. A go-around was executed; an emergency declared and the flight diverted to a nearby airport.

Narrative: The flight departed on a canned flight plan and climbed up to 8;000 FT and was doing 115-125 over the ground. On the enroute portion of the flight the weather at my destination dropped to 1-3/4 SM and 500 overcast. I was cleared for the approach. Once inside the TAA for the approach I descended according to the TAA. I crossed over Initial Approach fix and started a descent down to 2;200 FT at the first waypoint and 1;500 FT at the next point. Upon crossing the second waypoint I broke out and saw a tree I maneuvered the plane to the right because the tree was on the left in hopes of avoiding it. As a turned the airplane I pushed all of my levers forward and started a climbout on the missed approach. Once I had started a climb I put the gear and flaps up. Once I reached a safe altitude I assessed the airplane by first looking at my engines gauges and they were both reading normal. Secondly I looked outside the airplane to see if there was any damage done to the left side and the only thing I saw was the left oil door had opened up. Lastly I looked at my fuel gauges and they were both still reading sufficient of a tank on the mains and on the outboards. With this information I contacted Center and told them I would like to head direct to a nearby major airport. It was the safest opinion because the weather was higher there; fire and rescue was there. I climbed up to 9;000 FT and proceeded direct to my divert airport. Once I checked on with Approach I declared an emergency as a precaution. Approach asked me how many souls and fuel I had remaining. I had 5 people onboard including myself and 1hr and 45 minutes of fuel remaining. Approach asked if I would like the ILS to Runway XXL and I said yes. I flew the approach broke out; landed and taxied back to the Company's ramp.I missed read the approach plate and was low on the approach due to it.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of July 2013 and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.