NYC94LA132 · Cessna 172N
Cessna 172N · Accident: in flight collision with object during initial climb
From an unrecorded airport to Bradley International Airport (BDL)
Event
- NTSB case
- NYC94LA132
- 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
- 0 · 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
Cessna 172N
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 172
- Category
- Airplane
- 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
- N76090
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo Bradley International Airport (BDL), Windsor Locks, CT
- 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
- Initial climb
- 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
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Substantial
Cause areas
- Pilot in command › Visual lookout, inadequate
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Chatham, MA, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
THE PILOT TAXIED THE AIRPLANE OUT OF THE PARKING RAMP ONTO THE PARALLEL TAXIWAY, AND TAXIED TO THE RUNUP AREA IN PREPARATION FOR TAKEOFF. THE AIRPLANE WAS POSITIONED ON THE RUNWAY, AND THE TAKEOFF ROLL WAS INITIATED. THE OPPOSITE END OF THE RUNWAY COULD NOT BE SEEN AT THE BEGINNING OF THE TAKEOFF ROLL, DUE TO A 'HUMP' NEAR THE CENTER OF THE RUNWAY. SHORTLY AFTER LIFTOFF, THE PILOT OBSERVED BIRDS RISING FROM THE OPPOSITE END OF THE RUNWAY. THE AIRPLANE COLLIDED WITH THE BIRDS AND THE PILOT ABORTED THE TAKEOFF. THE AIRPLANE GLIDED PAST THE END OF THE RUNWAY, TOUCHED DOWN ON A DOWNHILL SLOPE, AND COLLIDED WITH A CHAIN LINKED FENCE. BIRDS WERE KNOWN TO FLOCK TO THIS AIRPORT, AND THE AIRPORT HAD PUBLICIZED THAT BIRDS ARE IN THE VICINITY OF THE RUNWAY IN SEVERAL PUBLICATIONS. THE AREA THAT THE BIRDS FLOCK TO, AND BOTH ENDS OF THE RUNWAY, ARE VISIBLE WHEN TAXIING OUT OF THE PARKING RAMP. A WITNESS WAS ABLE TO OBSERVED THE BIRDS ON THE RUNWAY FROM THE PARKING RAMP.
Probable cause
THE PILOT'S FAILURE TO SEE AND AVOID THE BIRDS. THE PRESENCE OF THE BIRDS AT THE AIRPORT WAS A CONTRIBUTING FACTOR.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record NYC94LA132
- Event ID
- 20001206X01845
- Case number
- NYC94LA132
- 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: 8821b478118f95fb7bfd46913a1f8146ef0f669310bda52de061a1c49eb6c3f3; retrieved 2026-09-23T00:54:27.348Z.