NYC89FA146 · Cessna T210N
Cessna T210N and Cessna 172L · Accident: midair collision en route
Event
- NTSB case
- NYC89FA146
- 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
Aircraft 1 · Cessna T210N
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 210
- 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
- N212FS
- Operator
- Sheldon Gold
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Teterboro Airport (TEB), TETERBORO, NJTo Portland International Jetport (PWM), Portland, ME
- 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
- Midair collision
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Substantial
Aircraft 2 · Cessna 172L
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 172
- 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
- N19649
- Operator
- Carl P. MC Neal · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Caribou Municipal Airport (CAR), Caribou, METo Hartford Brainard Airport (HFD), Hartford, 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 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
- Unknown
- 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
- Midair collision
- 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 › Visual lookout, not attained
- Pilot of other aircraft › Visual lookout, not attained
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Hubbardston, MA, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
CESSNA 210, N212FS, WAS CRUISING NE ON AN IFR CLNC AT 7000', SQUAWKING A DISCRETE TRANSPONDER CODE, WHILE CESSNA 172, N19649, WAS CONVERGING HEAD-ON, SQUAWKING 1200 (VFR CODE). THE 210'S GND SPD WAS 174 KTS; THE 172'S GND SPD WAS 138 KTS.THE ATC CTLR ADZD THE 210 PLT THAT THERE WAS 'TRAFFIC 12 O'CLOCK, 5 MILES, OPPOSITE DIRECTION, ALTITUDE UNKNOWN.' THE 210 PLT ACKNOWLEDGED, BUT NEITHER HE NOR HIS PAX SAW THE CONFLICTING TRAFFIC UNTIL MOMENTS BEFORE IMPACT (NEAR A VOR STN). HE INITIATED EVASIVE ACTION, BUT HE DID NOT BELIEVE THERE WAS SUFFICIENT TIME FOR THE ACFT TO RESPOND TO CTL INPUTS. DRG IMPACT, THE LEFT WINGS OF BOTH ACFT WERE DMGD. THE 210 CONTD FLYING & WAS SUCCESSFULLY LANDED, BUT THE 172 WENT OUT OF CTL & CRASHED. THE 210 PLT ESTIMATED THE VISIBILITY WAS AT LEAST 50 MILES. VISIBILITY AT THE NEAREST WX STN WAS RPRTD TO BE 40 MILES. THERE WAS NO RADIO CTC WITH THE 172. THE 210 PLT DID NOT USE HIS LNDG LIGHT & THERE WAS NO INDCN THAT THE 172 PLT HAD USED HIS LNDG LIGHT, NOR WAS THE USE OF A LNDG LIGHT REQUIRED.
Probable cause
FAILURE OF BOTH PILOTS TO SEE-AND-AVOID (ATTAIN VISUAL LOOKOUT FOR) CONFLICTING TRAFFIC.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record NYC89FA146
- Event ID
- 20001213X28649
- Case number
- NYC89FA146
- 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: 31912a5244ce066f7cb6ed99c0a16fb5538741111adbafea9f34ea426d27ccad; retrieved 2026-09-21T03:17:19.343Z.