NYC95LA074 · Beech T-34B
Beech T-34B · Accident: in flight collision with object on approach
From Lakehurst Maxfield Field Airport (NEL) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- NYC95LA074
- 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
- Instrument Meteorological Cond
Beech T-34B
- Aircraft type
- Beechcraft T-34
- 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
- N1440L
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Lakehurst Maxfield Field Airport (NEL), Lakehurst, NJTo not recorded
- 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 · VFR pattern downwind
- 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
- Tree(s)
- 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(cfi) › Remedial action, delayed
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Jackson, NJ, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
THE NIGHT TRAINING FLIGHT DEPARTED UNDER CONDITIONS OF A HAZY SKY, WITH A PRIVATE PILOT AND FLT INSTR ONBOARD. DUE TO REDUCED VISIBILITY, THE FLT INSTR DECIDED TO RETURN TO THE AIRPORT. HE INSTRUCTED THE PVT PILOT TO STAY ABOUT 500 FEET ABOVE THE GROUND AS THE AIRPLANE TURNED DOWNWIND OVER UNLIGHTED TERRAIN. THE PVT PILOT REPORTED THE FLT INSTR TOLD HIM HE WAS GAINING ALTITUDE AND HE, 'PUSHED THE NOSE OVER.' THE FLT INSTR THEN TOLD HIM, 'DON'T GO DOWN TOO FAST.' THE FLT INSTR TOOK CONTROL OF THE AIRPLANE AS IT PASSED THROUGH 200 FT AGL. IT STRUCK TREES ABOUT 100 FT HIGH, AND CAME TO REST ON THE GROUND, 600 FT LATER, UPRIGHT. NEITHER PILOT HAD FLOWN ANY NIGHT TIME IN THE PRECEDING 90 DAYS. THE FLT INSTR HAD LOGGED 3 HOURS OF INSTRUMENT TIME IN THE PRECEDING 90 DAYS.
Probable cause
the flight instructor's attempt to maintain visual reference with the ground, and his delayed remedial action to the dual student's actions, which resulted in an inadvertent tree strike. Factors were the lack of recent night experience for both pilots, the haze, and dark night conditions.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record NYC95LA074
- Event ID
- 20001207X03183
- Case number
- NYC95LA074
- 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: local date, investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 1995-03-17.
- API snapshot SHA-256: bb362ad2df75fbb3e5a4b1f4bc149160c1eed6eac19bb818b01ec5c166bca54d; retrieved 2026-09-21T13:25:03.637Z.