NYC84LA147 · Cessna 152
Cessna 152 and Cessna 172D · Accident: midair collision on approach
Event
- NTSB case
- NYC84LA147
- 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
- 0 · 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 · 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
- N45945
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From MAO7 · Norfolk, MATo 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 final
- 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
- None
Aircraft 2 · Cessna 172D
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 172
- 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
- N2773U
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Floyd Bennett Memorial Airport (GFL), Glens Falls, NYTo 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 final
- 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
- Minor
Cause areas
- Pilot in command › Visual lookout, inadequate
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Fitchburg, MA, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
THE PLT OF N45945 STATED THAT UPON ENTERING DOWNWIND FOR RWY 32 SHE REPORTED HER POSITION ON UNICOM BUT DID NOT RECEIVE A REPLY. SHE CONTINUED HER APPROACH FAILING TO REPORT BASE AND FINAL POSITIONS. AT APRX 500 FT ON FINAL APCH SHE FELT THE AIRCRAFT BUFFET AND CAUGHT A GLIMPSE OF SOMETHING OUT OF THE CORNER OF HER LEFT EYE. SHE CONTINUED AND LANDED WITHOUT INCIDENT. THE PLT OF N2773U STATED THAT HE CALLED ON 122.8 PRIOR TO ENTERING THE PATTERN AT THE ARPT. HE USED THE WRONG UNICOM FREQ AND DID NOT GET A REPLY. HE CONTINUED TO THE ARPT AND OBSERVED THE WINDSOCK INDICATING RWY 32 WAS BEST. HE ENTERED DOWNWIND AND REPORTED HIS POSITION, AGAIN ON THE WRONG FREQ. AFTER TURNING FINAL HE FELT A BUMP IN THE ACFT & SAW ANOTHER ACFT TO HIS UPPER RT. HE BROKE OFF HIS APCH AND REENTERED THE PATTERN, LANDING WITHOUT INCIDENT. IT WAS NOT DETERMINED THAT THE ACFT HAD COLLIDED UNTIL APRIL 11, 1984 WHEN TIRE MARKS AND RT WING DAMAGE WAS FOUND ON N2773U DURING AN INSPECTION. N45945 WAS NOT DAMAGED.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record NYC84LA147
- Event ID
- 20001214X39166
- Case number
- NYC84LA147
- 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, damage. 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: c162e08662080ea63353c21977b8f24cc8e18d41854443f38b125a51307adf92; retrieved 2026-09-23T20:44:57.720Z.