Pan Am Express de Havilland DHC-7-102 incident
de Havilland DHC-7-102 and Usaf Lockheed C-141 · Incident: near collision between aircraft en route
Narrative check · The NTSB narrative appears to contradict this record's flight rules. Values are shown as recorded, not corrected; compare with the narrative.
Event
- NTSB case
- NYC87IA118
- 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 · de Havilland DHC-7-102
- Aircraft type
- de Havilland DHC-7
- 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
- N42RA
- Operator
- Pan Am Express
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Philadelphia International Airport (PHL), Philadelphia, PATo John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK), Jamaica, NY
- 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 · 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
- Minor
Aircraft 2 · Lockheed C-141
- Aircraft type
- Lockheed C-141
- 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
- USAF
- Operator
- Usaf
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Mc Guire Air Force Base (WRI), McGuire AFB, NJTo Mc Guire Air Force Base (WRI)
- 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
Cause areas
- Atc personnel(dep/apch) › Radar traffic information service, inadequate
- Pilot in command › Visual lookout, inadequate
- Pilot of other aircraft › Visual lookout, inadequate
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Wrightstown, NJ, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
RANSOM FLT 444 (DHC-7) RPRTD A NEAR COLLISION WITH USAF C-141 (GLEEK 41) AS FLT 444 WAS AT 5000' & GLEEK 41 WAS CLBG TO 7500' FM A COMBAT AIRCREW TRAINING (CAT) MNVR. FLT 444 WAS UNDER IFR CTL OF MCGUIRE AFB RAPCON; GLEEK 41 WAS VFR, RCVG RADAR ADZYS FM RAPCON. THE DHC-7 CREW RPRTD THE CAMOUFLAGED C-141 BLENDED WITH THE BACKGROUND. AS THEY MNVRD TO AVOID A COLLISION, THE F/A & 1 PAX WERE INJURED. THE C-141 CAT MNVR (FM RWY 36 AT MCGUIRE) SIMULATED VFR APCH & DEP FM A HOSTILEARPT ENVIRONMENT. TO STAY IN THE ALLOCATED AIRSPACE, GLEEK 41 SHOULD HAVE MADE A LEFT CLBG DEP. THE RAPCON CTLR LACKED FAMILIARITY WITH THE CAT MNVR, BUT APPROVED A CLB TO 7500'. HE NOTED FLT 444 WAS COMING FM THE WEST, SO GAVE A TRAFFIC ADZY & TOLD GLEEK 41 TO TURN RGT TO 090 DEG. BY THAT TIME, GLEEK 41 WAS WELL IN A LEFT TURN, CLBG ABT 3000'/MIN. ANOTHERTRAFFIC ADZY WAS GIVEN & GLEEK 41 WAS TOLD TO LVL AT 4500', BUT IT RCHD ABT 5000' & CONVERGED WITH FLT 444 BFR ASCENT WAS ARRESTED. THE RAPCON RADAR (GPN-12/PIDP) DIDN'T HAVE CONFLICT ALERT FUNCTION. THE C-141 CREW DIDN'T SEE THE DHC-7.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record NYC87IA118
- Event ID
- 20001213X30803
- Case number
- NYC87IA118
- Dataset
- historical-pre2008
- Source SHA-256
- 89e2df6d848e7ab3b42e7d7c7a03ff403303057a26ca04c95b3ea67201c3ce74
Source notes (5)
- 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: bda0302f65b6a9f65db3a08d18e44f42206bba720b404ed6fef71ba3967aa782; retrieved 2026-09-18T19:41:25.976Z.
- Corrected after a review of the NTSB narrative, which states these values explicitly: operator. The NTSB narrative names the operator: "RANSOM FLT 444 (DHC-7) RPRTD A NEAR COLLISION WITH USAF C-141 (GLEEK 41)"