NYC84FU003 · Panaplane PAPPILLON
Panaplane PAPPILLON · Accident: in flight collision with object during initial climb
Event
- NTSB case
- NYC84FU003
- 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
Panaplane PAPPILLON
- Aircraft type
- Panaplane PAPPILLON
- Category
- Ultralight
- 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
- UNREG
- 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 103: Ultralight
- 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
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Minor
Cause areas
- Pilot in command › Flight controls, improper use of
- Pilot in command › Proper climb rate, not maintained
- Pilot in command › Throttle/power control, improper use of
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Pepperell, MA, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
THE AIRMAN TOOK OFF ON HIS FIRST SOLO FLT AFTER ONE AND ONE HALF HOURS OF GROUND INSTRUCTION AND NO FLT INSTRUCTION. THEFLT PROCEEDED AFTER A NORMAL TAKEOFF TO TURN LEFT AT ABOUT 50 FT AGL TO AVOID A HANGER. AFTER A PRECISE 90 DEGREE TURN, THE ACFT CONTINUED TOWARD THE RIVER AND SOME TREES. NO MORE TURNS WERE MADE TO STAY WITHIN THE ARPT BOUNDARY AND THE VEHICLE CONTACTED THE TREES BORDERING THE RIVER. THE VEHICLE FELL INTO THE WATER AND THE PLT DROWNED IN THE WRECKAGE. THERE WERE NO PLT CERTIFICATES OR RECORDED FLT TIME LOCATED FOR THE INDIVIDUAL.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record NYC84FU003
- Event ID
- 20001214X38897
- Case number
- NYC84FU003
- 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: e93b24d40464a70a18c1ba742bad1e3571b772a79a53da4f206f9bbc2080f460; retrieved 2026-09-21T05:39:17.158Z.