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Active Aero Charter Cessna 310 accident

21 Apr 1986 · Lincoln, RI, United States

Cessna 310 · Accident: abrupt maneuver while maneuvering

From Ypsilanti, MI to an unrecorded destination

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Event

NTSB case
NYC86FA112
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

Cessna 310

Aircraft type
Cessna 310
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
N128K
Onboard fatalities
Unknown
Route
From Ypsilanti, MITo not recorded
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
Maneuvering · turn to reverse direction
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
Abrupt maneuver
Also codedOther events the NTSB coded in the sequence, such as a wire strike after a loss of power. Flight Findings uses them for its kinds of event. Glossary
Visual flight rules (VFR) flight into instrument meteorological conditions (IMC); Stall/spin
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 › IFR procedure, not followed
  • Pilot in command › Judgment, poor

Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Lincoln, RI, the place the record names. Not the accident site.

NTSB narrative

THE AIR TAXI CARGO AIRCRAFT WAS OBSERVED MANEUVERING OVER THE AIRPORT IN IMC CONDITIONS FOR A VFR APPROACH TO LAND. WITNESSES DESCRIBED AN ABRUPT TURN TO REVERSE DIRECTION OF FLIGHT FOLLOWED BY A NOSE DIVE INTO THE GROUND. THE PILOT, AGE 22, HAD ACCUMMULATED A TOTAL FLIGHT EXPERIENCE OF 4,300 HOURS AND A TYPE RATING IN A LEAR JET. PILOT WAS HIRED 10 DAYS PRIOR TO THE ACCIDENT AND WAS OPERATING ON A TEMPORARY AIRMAN CERTIFICATE. THE PILOT'S CERTIFICATE HAD BEEN SUBJECT TO AN EMERGENCY REVOCATION IN AUGUST OF THE PREVIOUS YEAR. ENFORCEMENT ACTION WAS LESSENED TO SUSPENSION OF AIRMAN PRIVILAGES.

Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset

Sources

NTSB record NYC86FA112
Event ID
20001213X33393
Case number
NYC86FA112
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: dbc1553e4685c22d672701679a9d5ec142bb0ab784a017cd0db438813e8f7039; retrieved 2026-09-18T14:23:31.682Z.