NYC91FA196 · Cessna 152
Richmor Aviation Cessna 152 · Accident: in flight collision with terrain/water while maneuvering
From Dutchess County Airport (POU) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- NYC91FA196
- 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
- 2 · 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 152
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 152
- 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
- N6494Q
- Operator
- Richmor Aviation
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Dutchess County Airport (POU), Poughkeepsie, NYTo 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
- 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
- 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
- Dual student › Proper altitude, not maintained
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE INSTRUCTOR PILOT (CFI) BEGAN INSTRUCTING WHEN HE HAD ABOUT 194 HRS OF FLT TIME. HE HAD BEEN INSTRUCTING FOR 2 MONTHS AND HAD ACCUMULATED ABOUT 338 HOURS OF FLT TIME WHEN THE ACCIDENT OCCURRED. THE SCHEDULED LESSON FOR THIS FLIGHT INCLUDED STALLS, STEEP TURNS AND FORCED LANDINGS. JUST BEFORE THE ACCIDENT, THE AIRPLANE WAS OBSERVED FLYING AT LOW ALTITUDE IN A STEEPLY BANKED RIGHT TURN WITH THE ENGINE RUNNING 'LOUD AND CLEAR.' A WITNESS REPORTED THAT THE ENGINE WAS RUNNING 'WIDE OPEN' WHEN THE AIRCRAFT HIT THE GROUND. THE AIRCRAFT WAS EXTENSIVELY DAMAGED BY IMPACT. THERE WAS EVIDENCE THE AIRCRAFT HAD IMPACTED IN ABOUT A 70 DEG DIVE. WRECKAGE WAS SCATTERED IN A FAN SHAPED AREA; THE ENGINE CAME TO REST 252 FT FROM THE INITIAL IMPACT POINT.
Probable cause
FAILURE OF THE INSTRUCTOR PILOT (CFI) TO ASSURE THAT THE PROPER ALTITUDE WAS MAINTAINED. A FACTOR RELATED TO THE ACCIDENT WAS: THE CFI'S LACK OF EXPERIENCE IN THE TYPE OF OPERATION.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record NYC91FA196
- Event ID
- 20001212X17942
- Case number
- NYC91FA196
- 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: f1c848b63d72b7696b4e2212785e4c9ee26f2f6246cda9d305a9dbc1160da477; retrieved 2026-09-21T01:39:27.856Z.