BFO85FA048 · Rockwell 112B
Rockwell 112B · Accident: in flight collision with object during initial climb
From W22 · Woodbridge, VA to Dare County Regional Airport (MQI)
Event
- NTSB case
- BFO85FA048
- 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
- 5 · 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
Rockwell 112B
- Aircraft type
- Rockwell 112
- 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
- N1417J
- Operator
- Herbert E. Ewing · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From W22 · Woodbridge, VATo Dare County Regional Airport (MQI), Manteo, NC
- 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
- Initial climb
- 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 object
- 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
- Tree(s); Stall
- 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 weight and balance, not performed
- Pilot in command › Judgment, poor
- Pilot in command › Preflight planning/preparation, inadequate
- Pilot in command › Stall, inadvertent
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
ON MAY 26,1985,AT APPROXIMATELY 1240 HRS EDT,A ROCKWELL INTERNATIONAL COMMANDER 1120,N1417J,COLLIDED WITH TREES AFT TKOF FM WOODBRIDGE ARPT IN WOODBRIDGE,VA. THE ACFT WAS DESTROYED DRNG THE POST IMPACT FIRE AND THE PUT PLT AND 4 PAX ALL SUFFERED FATAL INJURIES. WITNESSES CONCUR THAT THE PLANE APPEARED TO BRUSH THE TOP BRANCHES OF A TREE LOCATED ABT 400FT OFF AND TO THE LEFT OF THE DEPARTURE END OF RWY 01 DRNG INITIAL CLIMBOUT. THIS WAS FOLLOWED BY A 50 FOOT CLIMB AFT WHICH THE ACFT BEGAN A SLIPPING LEFT TURN WITH AN INCREASING BANK ANGLE UNTIL IT DESCENDED INTO TREES. THE CALCULATED GROSS WT OF THE ACFT AT THE TIME OF TKOF WAS ABT 3021 POUNDS,THE CERTIFICATED MAX GROSS WT OF THE ACFT IS 2800 POUNDS. THE LENGTH OF RWY 01 AT WOODBRIDGE ARPT IS 2250FT AND THE RECORDED TEMPERATURE AT TIME OF TKOF WAS 83 DEGREES.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record BFO85FA048
- Event ID
- 20001214X36377
- Case number
- BFO85FA048
- 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: ff8f68b669e492ae16dc7cd747ae9b836887ebc616eb0ad65ce4a137c20e053b; retrieved 2026-09-21T05:00:29.511Z.