NYC94FA078 · Robinson R22A
Robinson R22A · Accident: in flight collision with object en route
From Teterboro Airport (TEB) to Millville Municipal Airport (MIV)
Event
- NTSB case
- NYC94FA078
- Event typeAccident: someone killed or seriously injured, or the aircraft substantially damaged (NTSB definition). Incident: an occurrence that affected or could have affected safety, short of that. Glossary
- Accident
- InvestigationHow far the investigation had got when the record was published: preliminary, ongoing, final or completed. Unknown where the source does not say. Glossary
- Completed
- API-reported fatalities
- 2 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- 0
- OperationWhat kind of flying it was, grouped by the rules it flew under: airline (US Part 121), air taxi and commuter (Part 135), general aviation (Part 91 and similar), military or government. Glossary
- General aviation
- WeatherVisual meteorological conditions (VMC): good enough to fly by looking outside. Instrument conditions (IMC): cloud or low visibility, flying by instruments. Glossary
- Visual Meteorological Cond
Robinson R22A
- Aircraft type
- Robinson R22
- Category
- Helicopter
- RegistrationThe aircraft's tail number, such as N12345 or G-ABCD. Registrations are reissued, so the same one years apart can be a different aircraft. Glossary
- N503TH
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Teterboro Airport (TEB), TETERBORO, NJTo Millville Municipal Airport (MIV), Millville, NJ
- Aircraft age
- Not recorded
- Flight rulesThe regulations the flight operated under: in the US, Part 91 (general aviation), Part 121 (airlines), Part 135 (air taxi and commuter) and others; for flights abroad, the NTSB's coarser commercial or non-commercial code. Glossary
- Part 91: General Aviation
- Phase of flightThe stage of the flight when things started to go wrong: standing, taxi, takeoff, initial climb, en route, maneuvering, approach or landing. Glossary
- En route · cruise
- First occurrenceThe single coded event the NTSB judges best describes what happened (records from 2008 on). Older records name the first occurrence in the sequence instead. Glossary
- In flight collision with object
- Also codedOther events the NTSB coded in the sequence, such as a wire strike after a loss of power. Flight Findings uses them for its kinds of event. Glossary
- Wire, static
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Destroyed
Cause areas
- Pilot in command › Clearance, inadequate
- Pilot in command › Visual lookout, inadequate
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of North Bergen, NJ, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
THE HELICOPTER WAS HEADED EAST WHEN IT STRUCK AND SEVERED A STATIC WIRE, SUSPENDED OVER HIGH TENSION POWER LINES PERPENDICULAR TO THE FLIGHT COURSE. THE HELICOPTER CAUGHT FIRE, DESCENDED, AND STRUCK THE GROUND ON A HIGHWAY (INTERSTATE 495) AND CAME TO REST AGAINST THE CENTER DIVIDER. THE SEVERED WIRE FELL INTO A PARKING LOT AND A FIRE OCCURRED DAMAGING ABOUT 100 CARS. ABOUT 7 MINUTES EARLIER, THE PILOT REPORTED TO AIR TRAFFIC CONTROL AT THE DEPARTURE POINT, THAT HE WOULD PROCEED ON THE 'SIERRA' CHARTED VFR HELICOPTER ROUTE. THE WIRE STRIKE OCCURRED WHERE THE ROUTE PASSES OVER THE WIRE. THE WIRE WAS SUSPENDED BETWEEN TWO TOWERS, WHICH WERE RESPECTIVELY 172 AND 162 FEET HIGH. THE PRIVATE PILOT WAS ON A CROSS-COUNTRY FLIGHT IN CONJUNCTION WITH FORMAL TRAINING FOR THE COMMERCIAL PILOT CERTIFICATE. THE PASSENGER WAS A CERTIFICATED FLIGHT INSTRUCTOR AND HE HAD ABOUT 967 HOURS OF TOTAL FLIGHT TIME. HE WAS NOT ACTING IN THE CAPACITY OF AN INSTRUCTOR ON THIS FLIGHT.
Probable cause
The pilot's failure to maintain adequate visual lookout and adequate obstacle clearance, which resulted in an inflight collision with a static wire.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record NYC94FA078
- Event ID
- 20001206X01364
- Case number
- NYC94FA078
- Dataset
- historical-pre2008
- Source SHA-256
- 89e2df6d848e7ab3b42e7d7c7a03ff403303057a26ca04c95b3ea67201c3ce74
Source notes (4)
- Unreviewed is an editorial label, not an investigation status. API-sourced is not report-checked or human-reviewed. Explicit event totals are used without summing aircraft injury tables; onboard allocation is withheld. Unknown values remain unknown. The operation category is mapped from the NTSB-reported FAR part and has not been reviewed.
- Filled from the NTSB case API where the bulk record had no value: investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date, which is the same as the UTC date the NTSB stores.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 9a7c8d7b4674c07128b7d00c3c33eb3a9f903626ebfbd1266ec08143ba292ca5; retrieved 2026-09-21T00:10:26.708Z.