Cash Air Piper PA-34-200T accident
Piper PA-34-200T · Accident: loss of control in flight on approach
From Teterboro Airport (TEB) to Boston Logan International Airport (BOS)
Event
- NTSB case
- NYC87FA187
- 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
- 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
- N33670
- Operator
- Cash Air
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Teterboro Airport (TEB), Newark, NJTo 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 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
- Loss of control in flight
- 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 › Aircraft handling, not maintained
- Pilot in command › Spatial disorientation
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Boston, MA, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
THE EN ROUTE PORTION OF THE FLT WAS UNEVENTFUL, EXCEPT THAT THE PLT USED THE CALL SIGN 'N251DE' INSTEAD OF 'N33670' WHICH WAS THE REGISTRATION NUMBER OF HIS ACFT. DRG ARRIVAL AT BOSTON, HE WAS PROVIDED RADAR VECTORS, CLEARED FOR AN ILS RWY 4R APCH & INSTRUCTED TO CONTACT THE TOWER. THE PLT CONTACTED THE TOWER & RPRTD OVER THE OUTER MARKER. SHORTLY THEREAFTER, THE ACFT ENTERED A LEFT TURN, THEN RADIO & RADAR CONTACT WERE LOST. IT CRASHED ABOUT 2.5 MI SSE OF THE ARPT.A WITNESS NR THE CRASH SITE THOUGHT THE ACFT HAD ENG PROBLEMS WHEN HE SAW IT DSCNDG IN A WESTERLY DIRECTION. HE SAID THE ENG THEN 'SMOOTHED OUT' & THE PLANE BGN TO CLIMB, THEN IT SUDDENLY WENT INTO A DIVE & CRASHED. DRG IMPACT, THE ACFT STRUCK A RESIDENCE & A PARKED AUTO. THREE HOUSES & 10 AUTOS WERE DESTROYED BY IMPACT & FIRE, OTHER HOUSES WERE DMG BY FIRE. NO PREIMPACT PART FAILURE OR MALFUNCTION WAS FND. THE PLT WAS CONDUCTING PART 135 OPNS IN IFR WITH 545 HRS TOTAL FLT TIME, 59 HRS INSTRUMENT TIME & 95 HRS NGT EXPERIENCE.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record NYC87FA187
- Event ID
- 20001213X31296
- Case number
- NYC87FA187
- 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. 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: 8dfb21580dc3aa70a875225627b5a354e13511abb4c0e96c80858dae5562954d; retrieved 2026-09-18T14:14:02.271Z.
- The NTSB's operator name is blank for N33670; the operator shown is the name the NTSB records it doing business as.