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NYC94FA145 · Cessna 210N

3 Aug 1994 · Martinsburg, WV, United States

Cessna 210N · Accident: in flight collision with terrain/water on approach

From Tullahoma Regional Airport William Northern Field (THA) to Hagerstown Regional Richard A Henson Field (HGR)

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Event

NTSB case
NYC94FA145
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
1 · 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
Charter & commuter
WeatherVisual meteorological conditions (VMC): good enough to fly by looking outside. Instrument conditions (IMC): cloud or low visibility, flying by instruments. Glossary
Instrument Meteorological Cond

Cessna 210N

Aircraft type
Cessna 210
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
N4875U
Operator
Unknown
Onboard fatalities
Unknown
Route
From Tullahoma Regional Airport William Northern Field (THA), Tullahoma, TNTo Hagerstown Regional Richard A Henson Field (HGR), Hagerstown, MD
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 135: Air Taxi & Commuter
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
Approach · IFR missed approach
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 terrain/water
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 › Altitude, inadequate
  • Pilot in command › Climb, not maintained

Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.

NTSB narrative

THE PILOT DIVERTED FROM HIS DESTINATION AIRPORT TO AN ALTERNATE, BECAUSE OF WEATHER. AT THE ALTERNATE AIRPORT, HE MADE AN ILS RUNWAY 26 APPROACH, BUT DUE TO FOG, HE WAS UNABLE TO LAND. HE MADE A MISSED APPROACH & ELECTED TO CONDUCT ANOTHER APPROACH TO THE SAME AIRPORT. HE WAS UNABLE TO LAND AGAIN. DURING A 2ND MISSED APPROACH, THE AIRPLANE IMPACTED A ROAD ON THE AIRPORT ABOUT 1400' SOUTH OF THE RUNWAY & WAS DESTROYED. IMPACT OCCURRED ON A HEADING OF 273 DEGREES; THE MAIN WRECKAGE CAME TO REST ABOUT 775' FROM THE INITIAL IMPACT POINT. THE GEAR, FLAPS, & SPOILERS WERE IN THE RETRACTED POSITION (THE PLANE WAS MODIFIED WITH SPOILERS). A WITNESS (COMMERCIAL PILOT) HEARD THE AIRPLANE & SAID THAT THE ENGINE WAS AT FULL POWER & SOUNDED NORMAL. A WEATHER OBSERVATION TAKEN AFTER THE ACCIDENT REPORTED VISIBILITY AS 1/4 MILE WITH FOG. THE PILOT HAD WORKED FROM 0800 TO 1730 DURING THE DAY BEFORE REPORTING FOR THE FLIGHT ABOUT 2200. ABOUT 2000 THAT SAME EVENING, HE HAD A TELEPHONE CONVERSTATION WITH A FAMILY MEMBER. DURING THE CONVERSATION, HE DID NOT MENTION ANY PLAN TO SLEEP, ALTHOUGH ONE ITEM OF DISCUSSION WAS THE PLT'S FLIGHT SCHEDULE. THE ACCIDENT OCCURRED AT 0533 THE NEXT MORNING. THE PILOT WAS ON HIS 2ND FLIGHT & HAD FLOWN ABOUT 6 HOURS BEFORE THE ACCIDENT. FAMILY MEMBERS STATED THAT HE OFTEN WORKED ALL DAY BEFORE FLYING AT NIGHT.

Probable cause

FAILURE OF THE PILOT TO MAINTAIN ADEQUATE ALTITUDE AND PROPER CLIMB DURING THE MISSED APPROACH. FACTORS RELATED TO THE ACCIDENT WERE: DARKNESS, FOG, AND CONDITIONS CONDUCIVE TO PILOT FATIGUE.

Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset

Sources

NTSB record NYC94FA145
Event ID
20001206X02116
Case number
NYC94FA145
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: 003a084fc5f2fa1fcd6cd93deccff0712bfae7f80aab10415cc00ccf3c5d9773; retrieved 2026-09-18T13:48:35.769Z.