Air Parcel Express Aero Commander 680FL accident
Aero Commander 680FL · Accident: in flight collision with terrain/water en route
From Edward F Knapp State Airport (MPV) to Patrick Leahy Burlington International Airport (BTV)
Event
- NTSB case
- NYC86FA201
- 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
- Visual Meteorological Cond
Aero Commander 680FL
- Aircraft type
- Aero Commander 680
- 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
- N6341U
- Operator
- Air Parcel Express
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Edward F Knapp State Airport (MPV), Montpelier, VTTo Patrick Leahy Burlington International Airport (BTV), Burlington, VT
- 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
- En route · cruise
- 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
- 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)
- 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 › Clearance, inadequate
- Pilot in command › VFR flight into imc, performed
Not plotted · Location withheld: coordinates are missing, conflicting, invalid, or have no accepted acquisition method. No substitute location has been invented.
NTSB narrative
THE PLT WAS ON A VFR FLIGHT FROM MONTPELIER, VT TO BURLINGTON, VT; A DISTANCE OF ABOUT 80 MIS. A MOUNTAIN RANGE IS BETWEEN THE TWO LOCATION. SHORTLY AFTER TAKEOFF THE PLT RADIOED BURLINGTON APPROACH CONTROL AND REQUESTED AN IFR CLEARANCE TO LAND AT BURLINGTON. HE REPORTED THAT HE WAS 10 MILES NW OF MONTPELIER. THE PLT WAS ASSIGNED A TRANSPONDER CODE. THE AIR TRAFFIC CONTROLLER THEN NOTICED THAT THE ACFT WAS NEAR A MOUNTAIN AT A UNVERIFIED ALTITUDE OF 3500 FT. THE CONTROLLER ALERTED THE PLT THAT HE WAS 2 MILES SOUTH OF A 4393 FT HIGH MOUNTAIN. THERE WAS NO RESPONSE FROM THE PLT. THE ACFT COLLIDED WITH THE EAST SIDE OF ETHAN ALLEN AT A HEIGHT OF 3580 FT. THE ACFT WAS ON A NORTHWEST HEADING AT IMPACT. VFR CONDITIONS OF 3800 FT BROKEN AND 4000 FT SCATTERED EXISTED AT THE TIME.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record NYC86FA201
- Event ID
- 20001213X34585
- Case number
- NYC86FA201
- 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: f135e33df6850ba78b7ee339937f1367b2e065eb558cd433a70626b0993e3ffc; retrieved 2026-09-18T14:19:46.221Z.