CHI86MA212 · Piper PA-31-T1
Piper PA-31-T1 and Cessna 152 · Accident: midair collision on approach
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI86MA212
- 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
- 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
Aircraft 1 · Piper PA-31-T1
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-31
- 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
- N284MC
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Frederick Douglass Greater Rochester International Airport (ROC), Rochester, NYTo Orange County Airport (MGJ), Montgomery, 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 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 downwind
- 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
- Midair collision
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Substantial
Aircraft 2 · Cessna 152
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 152
- 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
- N4845B
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo 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 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 downwind
- 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
- Midair collision
- 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 › Procedures/directives, improper
- Pilot in command › Visual lookout, not maintained
- Pilot of other aircraft › Visual lookout, not performed
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
AFTER CANCELING HIS IFR FLIGHT PLAN, THE PA-31 PILOT ENTERED THE TRAFFIC PATTERN FOR RWY 26 ON A CROSSWIND LEG. HE DID NOT SEE ANY TRAFFIC ON DOWNWIND AS HE ENTERED THE PATTERN. HE VISUALLY CLEARED THE AREA BELOW AND TO HIS RIGHT WHILE ON DOWNWIND AND AS HE LOOKED UP AND FORWARD HE SAW THE CESSNA 152 IN FRONT OF HIM. THE CESSNA WAS ALSO ON THE DOWNWIND LEG FOR RWY 26. THE PA-31 PILOT, UPON SEEING THE CESSNA, PULLED UP AND TO THE RIGHT, BUT THE LEFT LANDING GEAR AND UNDERSIDE OF HIS AIRCRAFT DESTROYED THE EMPENNAGE OF THE CESSNA WHICH SUBSEQUENTLY DESCENDED UNCONTROLLED TO GROUND IMPACT. THE PA-31 PILOT WAS ABLE TO LAND HIS AIRCRAFT, BUT THE LEFT GEAR COLLAPSED DURING THE LANDING ROLL.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI86MA212
- Event ID
- 20001213X34442
- Case number
- CHI86MA212
- 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: 47ab68ba20622161fd24da6bd1f33ce61755626ec8e5f791b78a1a7be64b0d4c; retrieved 2026-09-21T04:25:26.798Z.