FLIGHT FINDINGSAVIATION OCCURRENCE MAP
Back to map

NYC86FHA02 · Gulfstream American AA-1

16 Mar 1986 · Pottstown, PA, United States

Gulfstream American AA-1 · Accident: undershoot on approach

From N46 · Limerick, PA to Pottstown Municipal Airport (N47)

Report a problem

Event

NTSB case
NYC86FHA02
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
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
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

Gulfstream American AA-1

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
N224Y
Operator
James V. Davis · private individual
Onboard fatalities
Unknown
Route
From N46 · Limerick, PATo Pottstown Municipal Airport (N47), Pottstown, 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
Approach · VFR pattern final
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
Undershoot
DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
Substantial

Cause areas

  • Dual student › Interpretation of instructions, inaccurate
  • Dual student › Proper descent rate, not maintained
  • Pilot in command(cfi) › Planned approach, not attained
  • Pilot in command(cfi) › Supervision, inadequate

Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.

NTSB narrative

THE ACFT COLLIDED WITH AN EMBANKMENT SHORT OF THE INTENDED RWY. A CFI WAITING ON THE TAXIWAY FOR CLEARANCE TO TAKEOFF STATED THAT THE ACFT APPEARED TO BE OK ABOUT 200 FT FROM THE THRESHOLD OF THE RWY. THEN IT APPEARED TO SLIP TO THE LEFT AND TURN 90 DEGREES TO THE RT IN A NOSE DOWN ATTITUDE. THE IMPACT WAS NOT OBSERVED DUE TO THE HEIGHT OF THE EMBANKMENT. THE INSTRUCTOR IN THE ACCIDENT ACFT STATED THAT WHEN HE ASKED THE STUDENT PLT FLYING THE ACFT TO ADD POWER TO DECREASE THE ACFT SINK RATE THE STUDENT CLOSED THE THROTTLE. THE CFI PUSHED THE THROTTLE FOR FULL POWER BUT TOO LATE TO OVERCOME THE SINK RATE. THE CFI THEN ATTEMPTED TO LAND ON A ROAD BY THE EMBANKMENT. THE LANDING GEAR COLLAPSED DURING THE ATTEMPTED LANDING AND THE ACFT ENDED UP AGAINST THE EMBANKMENT MINUS THE LEFT WING, LEFT MAIN LNDG GEAR AND NOSE GEAR. THE DIRECTION OF THE ROAD WAS ABOUT 90 DEGREES OFF THE RWY HEADING. THERE WERE 4 CUTS IN THE ROAD FROM THE ACFT PROP RANGING IN DEPTH FROM 1/8 TO 3/4 INCHES DEEP AND 15 INCHES WIDE.

Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset

Sources

NTSB record NYC86FHA02
Event ID
20001213X33158
Case number
NYC86FHA02
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: 8ffc0d064535319d30eb5b0afa5480edbc2136cb0c3b0744bc3deb90713d5fd0; retrieved 2026-09-21T17:02:06.183Z.