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NYC86FA214 · Piper PA-24-260

22 Aug 1986 · FT. DIX, NJ, United States

Piper PA-24-260 · Accident: loss of control in flight en route

From Essex County Airport (CDW) to Salisbury Ocean City Wicomico Regional Airport (SBY)

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Event

NTSB case
NYC86FA214
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
3 · 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
Instrument Meteorological Cond

Piper PA-24-260

Aircraft type
Piper PA-24
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
N8734P
Onboard fatalities
Unknown
Route
From Essex County Airport (CDW), Caldwell, NJTo Salisbury Ocean City Wicomico Regional Airport (SBY), Salisbury, MD
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
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
Loss of control in flight
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 › Aircraft handling, not maintained
  • Pilot in command › Altitude, not maintained
  • Pilot in command › Operation with known deficiencies in equipment, continued
  • Pilot in command › Spatial disorientation
  • Vacuum system › Failure, total

Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Fort Dix, NJ, the place the record names. Not the accident site.

NTSB narrative

THE ACFT WAS HEADED SW ON VICTOR SIXTEEN INBOUND TO COYLE VOR WHEN THE PLT REPORTED THE LOSS OF GYRO INSTRUMENTS. THE ACFT WAS AT 6000 FT AND IN 'SOLID IFR WEATHER.' THE PLT ELECTED NOT TO DECLARE EMERGENCY AND LAND WHEN ASKED IF HE WANTED TO DO SO BY ATC. THE PLT STATED THAT HE WOULD CONTINUE THE FLIGHT. SHORTLY AFTER THE PLT REPORTED LOSS OF GYRO INSTRUMENTS THE ACFT BEGAN TO LOSE ALTITUDE AND VEER OFF OF COURSE. ATC INFORMED THE PLT OF THE ACFT DEVIATION AND THE PLT RESPONED THAT HE WOULD TAKE CORRECTIVE ACTION. THE ACFT CONTINUED TO DEVIATE UNTIL IT HAD DESCENDED TO 5200 FT WHEN THE PLT RADIOED AN ABRUPTLY ENDED TRANSMISSION: '...I'M IN TROUBLE.' THERE WAS NO FURTHER TRANSMISSION FROM THE PLT. THE ACFT COLLIDED WITH THE GROUND IN A WOODED AREA AND THE WRECKAGE WAS STREWN A DISTANCE OF ABOUT 1700 FT IN A NORTHERNLY DIRECTION. THERE WAS WING, TAIL AND FUSELAGE SEPARATION OF THE ACFT.

Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset

Sources

NTSB record NYC86FA214
Event ID
20001213X34587
Case number
NYC86FA214
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: d087c959a9123cfc72c556eedb38c0e74e8ee9529b2fce512d98e046c6884e2e; retrieved 2026-09-21T04:26:01.844Z.