NYC94FA160 · Cessna 320C
Cessna 320C · Accident: loss of engine power on approach
From Frederick Douglass Greater Rochester International Airport (ROC) to Winchester Regional Airport (OKV)
Event
- NTSB case
- NYC94FA160
- 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
- 4 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- 2
- 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
- Instrument Meteorological Cond
Cessna 320C
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 320
- 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
- N85WM
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Frederick Douglass Greater Rochester International Airport (ROC), Rochester, NYTo Winchester Regional Airport (OKV), Winchester, VA
- 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
- 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
- Loss of engine power
- 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
- Stall/spin
- 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
- Object › Residence
- Pilot in command › Lack of recent experience in type operation
- Pilot in command › Qualification
- Pilot in command › Stall/spin, inadvertent
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE AIRPLANE WAS CRUISING AT 6000 FEET, WHEN THE PILOT REPORTED THE RIGHT ENGINE LOST POWER. ATC VECTORED HIM TO AN AIRPORT FOR AN ILS APPROACH. THE WEATHER WAS REPORTED AS: 1500 BROKEN, 2000 OVERCAST, 1 1/2 MILES WITH LIGHT RAIN, WITH LIGHT WINDS. WHILE ON VECTORS, THE PILOT STATED THAT THE ENGINE HAD BEEN RESTARTED, BUT WAS 'NOT RUNNING WELL.' THE PILOT REPORTED THAT HE COULD NOT 'TUNE IN' THE ILS. AN FAA FACILITY CHECK AIRPLANE RATED THE ILS AS SATISFACTORY. THE PILOT NEVER INTERCEPTED THE ILS, AND THE AIRPLANE ALTITUDE VARIED BETWEEN 2600 AND 3900 FEET. WITNESSES HEARD AN ENGINE 'SPUTTERING,' AND OBSERVED THE AIRPLANE 'FLYING ERRATICALLY, IN AND OUT OF THE CLOUDS...CIRCLING AND TURNING...CLIMBING INTO THE CLOUDS AT A STEEP ANGLE, FOLLOWED BY A NEARLY VERTICAL DESCENT INTO A HOUSE.' THE PILOT DID NOT HAVE A MULTI-ENGINE RATING. HE ATTEMPTED TO OBTAIN A MULTI-ENGINE RATING 15 MONTHS PRIOR TO THE ACCIDENT, BUT FAILED 3 ATTEMPTS. IN THE LAST 12 MONTHS, THE PILOT FLEW AN ESTIMATED TOTAL OF 22 HOURS. THE ENGINES WERE SEVERELY DAMAGED DURING THE IMPACT. EXAMINATION OF THE ENGINES REVEALED NO DISCREPANCIES.
Probable cause
The pilot's failure to maintain adequate airspeed which resulted in a stall/spin and his lack of qualification to conduct flight in type aircraft. A factor is the loss of engine power for undetermined reasons.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record NYC94FA160
- Event ID
- 20001206X02118
- Case number
- NYC94FA160
- 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: a62334d9ed20ff4bb0b0dfa21dc8160fe6f5a99a3d6cca39ff831ba538ef7302; retrieved 2026-09-21T00:02:35.406Z.