NYC88FA032 · Beech F-33A
Beech F-33A · Accident: in flight collision with terrain/water during an uncontrolled descent
From Westchester County Airport (HPN) to First Flight Airport (FFA)
Event
- NTSB case
- NYC88FA032
- 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
- 2 · 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
Beech F-33A
- Aircraft type
- Beechcraft F-33
- 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
- N333JL
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Westchester County Airport (HPN), White Plains, NYTo First Flight Airport (FFA), Kill Devil Hills, NC
- 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
- Uncontrolled descent
- 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
- In flight collision with terrain/water
- 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
- Reason for occurrence undetermined
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Forked River, NJ, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
THE PILOT AND PASSENGER DEPARTED WHITE PLAINS, NEW YORK ON A VFR FLIGHT TO KILL DEVIL HILLS, NORTH CAROLINA. SEARCH EFFORTS WERE INITIATED WHEN THE AIRCRAFT FAILED TO ARRIVE AT ITS DESTINATION. A WITNESS IN A HUNTING CAMP NEAR THE CRASHSITE SAW THE AIRCRAFT IN A STEEP DESCENT AND HEARD IT IMPACT THE GROUND. CIVIL AIR PATROL PERSONNEL LOCATED THE WRECKAGEON NOVEMBER 5. INVESTIGATION REVEALED THE AIRCRAFT IMPACTED THE GROUND AT A HIGH VELOCITY IN A 45 TO 60 DEGREE DESCENT. NO EVIDENCE OF A PREIMPACT FAILURE OR MALFUNCTION OF THE AIRCRAFT'S STRUCTURE, FLIGHT CONTROL SYSTEM OR POWERPLANT WAS FOUND. THE PILOT HAD BEEN HOSPITALIZED FOR GALLBLADDER SURGERY IN SEPTEMBER 1987 AND WAS TAKING PRESCRIPTION MEDICATION TO REDUCE ACID PRODUCED BY THE STOMACH AT THE TIME OF THE ACCIDENT. HOWEVER, NO EVIDENCE OF PILOT INCAPACITATION COULD BE FOUND.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record NYC88FA032
- Event ID
- 20001213X32606
- Case number
- NYC88FA032
- 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: 14c795036b1fcd06c1d0631db8a4d12526bebfea2587f1cd9fe9476174d34eff; retrieved 2026-09-21T03:55:19.538Z.