NYC89IA222 · Cessna 421C
Cessna 421C and Pan American Boeing 727-227 · Incident: near collision between aircraft en route
Event
- NTSB case
- NYC89IA222
- 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
- Incident
- 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
- Airline
- 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
Aircraft 1 · Cessna 421C
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 421
- 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
- N247CB
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Tweed New Haven Airport (HVN), New Haven, CTTo 4G9 · Bedford, PA
- 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
- En route · cruise
- 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
- Near collision between aircraft
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- None
Aircraft 2 · Boeing 727-227
- Aircraft type
- Boeing 727
- 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
- N553PE
- Operator
- Pan American
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From LaGuardia Airport (LGA), NEW YORK, NYTo Boston Logan International Airport (BOS), Boston, MA
- 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 121: Air Carrier
- 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
- En route · climb to cruise
- 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
- Near collision between aircraft
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- None
Cause areas
- Atc personnel(dep/apch) › Crew/group coordination, inadequate
- Pilot in command › Visual lookout, inadequate
- Pilot of other aircraft › Visual lookout, inadequate
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
A CESSNA 421, N247CB, WAS RECEIVING RADAR ADVISORIES FROM NEW YORK TRACON WHILE PROCEEDING WESTBOUND AT 10,500 FT. AT ABOUT THE SAME TIME, PAN AM FLT 542 (BOEING 727, N553PE) WAS PROCEEDING NORTHEAST AT 10,000 FT WITH AN IFR CLNC. AT 1744:32 EDT, THE LIBERTY SECTOR CTLR GAVE THE CESSNA PLT A FREQ CHANGE TO THE LAGUARDIA SECTOR, WHICH WAS THE NEXT SECTOR TO THE WEST; HE THEN CHANGED THE CESSNA 421'S DATA BLOCK TO A LIMITED DATA BLOCK. AT 1748, FLT 542 WAS GIVEN A FREQ CHANGE FROM THE LAGUARDIA SECTOR TO THE LIBERTY SECTOR. AT 1749:04, BEFORE THE TWO ACFT HAD PASSED EACH OTHER, THE LIBERTY SECTOR CTLR CLRD FLT 542 TO CLIMB TO 17,000 FT & TO TURN TO A HDG OF 080 DEG. THE CESSNA PLT HAD BEEN GIVEN A TRAFFIC ADVISORY (BY THE LAGUARDIA CTLR) & WAS WATCHING FLT 542. WHEN THE CESSNA PLT REALIZED FLT 542 HAD STARTED TO CLIMB, HE PULLED UP TO AVOID A COLLISION. AT ABOUT THE SAME TIME, ONE OF THE PLTS OF FLT 542 SAW THE CESSNA & PUSHED THE NOSE OF HIS ACFT DOWN FOR EVASIVE ACTION.
Probable cause
FAILURE OF THE LIBERTY SECTOR CONTROLLER TO ADVISE PAN AM FLIGHT 542 OF THE PRESENCE OF THE CESSNA 421 AND/OR RESTRICT THE CLIMB OF FLIGHT 542 UNTIL IT HAD PASSED THE CESSNA, AND FAILURE OF THE PAN AM AIRCREW TO SEE THE CESSNA IN ADEQUATE TIME TO AVOID A NEAR COLLISION.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record NYC89IA222
- Event ID
- 20001213X28182
- Case number
- NYC89IA222
- 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, damage. 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: 85ad005d088a1dc545e7fc9d97468e8119ffd0667dd1838f17333e9fcea15f01; retrieved 2026-09-18T19:12:29.145Z.