U.S. Express Piper PA-34-200T accident
Piper PA-34-200T · Accident: in flight collision with terrain/water on approach
From Albany International Airport (ALB) to Igor I Sikorsky Memorial Airport (BDR)
Event
- NTSB case
- NYC88FA093
- 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
- Charter & commuter
- 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
Piper PA-34-200T
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-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
- N2469M
- Operator
- U.S. Express
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Albany International Airport (ALB), Albany, NYTo Igor I Sikorsky Memorial Airport (BDR), Bridgeport, CT
- 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 135: Air Taxi & Commuter
- 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 final 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
- 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
- Pilot in command › Decision height, not identified
- Pilot in command › IFR procedure, improper
- Pilot in command › Proper glidepath, not maintained
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Stratford, CT, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
THE PILOT AND PILOT-RATED PAX RECEIVED VECTORS FOR MULTIPLE ILS APPROACHES IN DETERIORATING CONDITIONS. ON THE FIRST ATTEMPT THE AIRCRAFT PASSED OVER WITNESSES BUT WAS OFF COURSE AND NOT IN A POSITION TO LAND. THE SECOND ATTEMPT WAS ABORTED BEFORE REACHING THE AIRPORT. DURING THE THIRD ATTEMPT RADAR SERVICE WAS TERMINATED AND THE PILOT WAS GIVEN A FREQUENCY CHANGE. THE AIRCRAFT CRASHED INTO WATER ABOUT ONE MILE FROM THE RUNWAY. POST-ACCIDENT EXAM DID NOT DISCLOSE ANY MALFUNCTION WITH THE AIRCRAFT SYSTEMS. BOTH ENGINES WERE TEST-RUN TO FULL POWER. THE INVESTIGATION DISCLOSED THAT NEITHER PILOT WAS FAR PART 135 QUALIFIED FOR THIS FLIGHT. THE AIRCRAFT WAS BEING OPERATED WITH ENGINES OVER TBO, TRANSPONDER TEST DUE, AND THE 100 HR INSPECTION OVERDUE. THE PILOTS DID NOT REPORT ANY DIFFICULTIES WITH THE AIRCRAFT PRIOR TO IMPACT.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record NYC88FA093
- Event ID
- 20001213X25144
- Case number
- NYC88FA093
- 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 1988-02-20.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 91e8190f54089e88c1c2d11e6cf626504c5dbcfdbb52d6eb92417a127d6e3ac5; retrieved 2026-09-18T14:11:57.732Z.