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NYC88DFA02 · Terry TIERRA II

19 Jun 1988 · Plattsburgh, NY, United States

Terry TIERRA II · Accident: loss of control in flight during initial climb

From PLB to PLB

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Event

NTSB case
NYC88DFA02
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
Visual Meteorological Cond

Terry TIERRA II

Aircraft type
Terry TIERRA
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
N4462T
Onboard fatalities
Unknown
Route
From PLBTo PLB
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
Initial climb
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
Loss of control in flight
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
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

  • Pilot in command › Airspeed, not maintained
  • Pilot in command › Operation with known deficiencies in equipment, performed
  • Pilot in command › Stall, inadvertent

Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.

NTSB narrative

ACCORDING TO WITNESSES, THE PLT WAS ON HIS 2ND FLT OF THE DAY IN A RECENTLY PURCHASED ULTRALIGHT TYPE OF ACFT. THEY RPRTD THAT AFTER THE ACFT TOOK OFF FROM RWY 32, IT CLIMBED TO ABOUT 300' AGL & ROLLED INTO A STEEP RIGHT BANK. ITS NOSE THEN DROPPED & THE ACFT ENTERED A STEEP DESCENT & CRASHED. AN INVESTIGATION REVEALED THE AIRSPEED INDICATOR WAS INOP. THE PLT HAD NO KNOWN FLT TIME IN THIS MAKE & MODEL OF ACFT BEFORE THE DATE OF THE ACDNT. THE ACFT WAS BUILT IN A 2 PLACE CONFIGURATION, BUT WAS ALTERED TO CONTAIN ONLY 1 SEAT.

Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset

Sources

NTSB record NYC88DFA02
Event ID
20001213X26052
Case number
NYC88DFA02
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 1988-06-20.
  • API snapshot SHA-256: 3eef9e7b5c66866138fc960fff21b0d5da4b0daf92947563cd7c62aca9f1d3cd; retrieved 2026-09-21T03:41:04.464Z.