NYC88FA072 · Cessna 337E
Cessna 337E · Accident: in flight encounter with weather while maneuvering
Event
- NTSB case
- NYC88FA072
- 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
- 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 337E
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 337
- 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
- N1201M
- Operator
- John F. Higgins · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo 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 encounter with weather
- 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
- Visual flight rules (VFR) flight into instrument meteorological conditions (IMC); 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
- Stall/spin › Inadvertent
- Unqualified person › Judgment, poor
- Unqualified person › VFR flight into imc, performed
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE 24 YEAR OLD UNLICENSED PILOT MADE AN UNAUTHORIZED FLIGHT IN HIS FATHER'S AIRCRAFT. THE CESSNA 337 WAS OBSERVED TO MANUEVER IN THE VICINITY OF THE AIRPORT AT A LOW ALTITUDE IN AND OUT OF THE CLOUDS. THE AIRCRAFT WAS THEN OBSERVED TO COME OUT OF THE CLOUDS LEFT WING HIGH AND THE NOSE FELL THROUGH THE HORIZON. THE AIRCRAFT IMPACTED ON THE AIRPORT AND WAS DESTROYED BY THE IMPACT. THE PILOT WAS FATALLY INJURED. NO PRE-EXISTING MECHANICAL MALFUNCTION WAS FOUND WITH THE AIRCRAFT. WEATHER WAS ESTIMATED TO BE 200 FT VARIABLE 400 FT OVERCAST, 1 MILE VISIBILITY, WITH RAIN AND FOG. WITNESSES REPORTED THAT THE PILOT HAD FLOWN SOLO IN THIS AIRCRAFT AND ANOTHER 337 AND A PIPER CHEROKEE ALSO BASED AT THIS AIRPORT. NO RECORD COULD BE FOUND TO INDICATE THE PILOT HAD EVER POSSESSED A MEDICAL CERTIFICATE OR TAKEN ANY FAA RATING EXAMS. WITNESSES SAID HE HAD RECEIVED FLIGHT INSTRUCTION FROM HIS FATHER, A RETIRED AIRLINE CAPTAIN.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record NYC88FA072
- Event ID
- 20001213X25142
- Case number
- NYC88FA072
- 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: b1c3e360c6008185ed3e351e25ed1717469a7e63574992c4c1f220671f7c78fa; retrieved 2026-09-21T03:49:35.176Z.