NYC93LA157 · Cessna 305A
Aerial Advertising Cessna 305A · Accident: airframe, component or system failure while maneuvering
From Central Jersey Regional Airport (47N) to 47N
Event
- NTSB case
- NYC93LA157
- 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 305A
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 305
- 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
- N53136
- Operator
- Aerial Advertising
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Central Jersey Regional Airport (47N), Manville, NJTo 47N
- 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
- Maneuvering
- 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
- Airframe, component or system failure
- 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/mush
- 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
- Towing/advertising/external load equipment › Undetermined
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Beach Haven, NJ, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
THIS WAS THE PILOT'S THIRD BANNER TOW FLIGHT OF THE DAY. THE FIRST AND SECOND BANNER DROPS WERE SUCCESSFUL. ON THE THIRD DROP, THE PILOT WAS UNABLE TO RELEASE THE BANNER AND IT DRAGGED ON THE GROUND, THEN INTO THE WATER OF A NEARBY BAY. THE PILOT REPORTED THAT WHEN THE BANNER WENT INTO THE WATER, THE RESULTANT DRAG WAS TOO MUCH FOR THE AIRCRAFT TO OVERCOME. HE WAS UNABLE TO SUSTAIN FLIGHT, AND THE AIRPLANE CONTACTED THE WATER. THE PILOT STATED THAT UNKNOWN TO HIM, THE THIRD TOW LINE WAS 50 TO 75 FEET LONGER THAN THE OTHERS. DURING AN INVESTIGATION, THE TOW RELEASE MECHANISM WAS ACTUATED SIX TIMES (WITHOUT A LOAD), AND IT FUNCTIONED PROPERLY.
Probable cause
FAILURE OF THE BANNER RELEASE SYSTEM TO FUNCTION FOR AN UNDETERMINED REASON, WHICH RESULTED IN AN INABILITY OF THE AIRCRAFT TO SUSTAIN FLIGHT ONCE THE BANNER BEGAN DRAGGING IN THE WATER. A FACTOR RELATED TO THE ACCIDENT WAS: LACK OF COORDINATION BETWEEN THE PILOT AND GROUND PERSONNEL TO INFORM THE PILOT OF THE EXTRA LENGTH OF THE TOW LINE.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record NYC93LA157
- Event ID
- 20001211X13234
- Case number
- NYC93LA157
- 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: 8f35c5316d9799307068703d30fcb68509b54be94bece3cd19ac93ea20f52f5a; retrieved 2026-09-21T22:50:34.394Z.