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Med Air Express Piper PA-34-200T accident

31 May 1984 · TETERBORO, NJ, United States

Piper PA-34-200T and Piper AEROSTAR 600 AEROSTAR 6 · Accident: on ground/water collision with object while taxiing

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Narrative check · The NTSB narrative appears to contradict this record's registration. Values are shown as recorded, not corrected; compare with the narrative.

Event

NTSB case
NYC84LA205
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
Charter & commuter
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

Aircraft 1 · Piper PA-34-200T

Aircraft type
Piper PA-34
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
N33086
Onboard fatalities
Unknown
Route
From not recordedTo Bradley International Airport (BDL), Windsor Locks, CT
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
Taxi · to runway
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
On ground/water 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

Aircraft 2 · Piper AEROSTAR 600 AEROSTAR 6

Aircraft type
Piper AEROSTAR 600
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
N8208J
Operator
Unknown
Onboard fatalities
Unknown
Route
From not recordedTo N44 · Toms River, NJ
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
Standing · engine(s) operating
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
On ground/water 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
Substantial

Cause areas

  • Pilot in command › Visual lookout, inadequate
  • Pilot of other aircraft › Visual lookout, inadequate

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

NTSB narrative

A PIPER PA-34-200T, N33086 & A PIPER AEROSTAR 600, N8208T, WERE INVOLVED IN AN ON-GROUND COLLISION AT NIGHT. IFR FLT PLANS HAD BEEN FILED FOR BOTH ACFT & THE PLTS OF BOTH ACFT HAD BEGUN TAXIING FOR TAKEOFF. ACCORDING TO THE PA-34 PLT, HE HAD BEEN CLEARED TO TAXI TO RWY 1 VIA TAXIWAYS DELTA, FOXTROT & ECHO & WAS TO HOLD SHORT OF PAPA. AT APRX 200 FT SHORT OF PAPA, THE PA-34 PLT BEGAN SLOWING TO STOP, BUT DID NOT SEE THE AEROSTAR, WHICH WAS HOLDING SHORT OF PAPA, UNTIL JUST BEFORE THE COLLISION. THE PA-34 RECEIVED ONLY MINOR DAMAGE, BUT THE AEROSTAR WAS SUBSTANTIALLY DAMAGED. THE PA-34 PLT CHARACTERIZED HIS VISIBILITY AS POOR DUE TO A COMBINATION OF RAIN CONDITIONS & POOR FRONTAL LIGHTING CAPABILITY OF HIS ACFT.

Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset

Sources

NTSB record NYC84LA205
Event ID
20001214X39748
Case number
NYC84LA205
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: 038fab0f0b455b9c384cfb6ae2031023b9e22e4d12ab33310c605805a7ceca47; retrieved 2026-09-18T20:41:05.583Z.