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NYC84FA274 · Piper PA-24-260

12 Aug 1984 · SYDNEY, NY, United States

Piper PA-24-260 · Accident: in flight collision with object on approach

From LaGuardia Airport (LGA) to Sidney Municipal Airport

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Event

NTSB case
NYC84FA274
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
Unknown

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
N9232P
Operator
Unknown
Onboard fatalities
Unknown
Route
From LaGuardia Airport (LGA), FLUSHING, NYTo Sidney Municipal Airport
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 · circling (IFR)
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)
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 › Proper altitude, not maintained

Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.

NTSB narrative

DURING A NIGHT ARRIVAL, THE PLT WAS CLEARED FOR A VOR/CIRCLING APCH TO THE SIDNEY MUNI ARPT. THE PUBLISHED APCH WAS FROM THE HANCOCK VOR WITH A NORTHERLY HEADING TO THE ARPT OF 354 DEG. SUBSEQUENTLY, THE ACFT CRASHED & BURNED ON WOODED TERRAIN ABOUT 1 MI NORTH OF THE ARPT IN THE VICINITY OF A LEFT DOWNWIND LEG FOR RWY 7. INITIAL IMPACT OCCURRED WITH TREES AT AN ELEVATION OF ABOUT 1550 FT WHILE PARALLELING RWY 7/25 (HEADING 255 DEG). THE ELEVATION OF THE ARPT WAS 1027 FT. THE MIN DESCENT ALT (MDA) FOR THE VOR APCH WAS 2280 FT. AN EXAM OF THE WRECKAGE REVEALED NO EVIDENCE OF A PREIMPACT PART FAILURE OR MALFUNCTION. THE PROP BLADES HAD EVIDENCE OF ROTATIONAL DAMAGE. A TEST OF THE PLT'S BLOOD SHOWED AN ALCOHOL LEVEL OF 101 MGS% (.101%); HOWEVER, THE PLT'S BODY (& THE WRECKAGE) WERE NOT FOUND UNTIL 8/15/84. THERE WAS EVIDENCE THAT ALCOHOL IN THE PLT'S BLOOD WOULD HAVE RESULTED FROM PUTREFACTION. ABOUT 26 MI SW AT BINGHAMTON, NY, THE 0051 EDT WX WAS, IN PART: 1500 FT SCATTERED, 5500 FT OVERCAST, VISIBILITY 7MI, WIND 120 DEG AT 5 KTS.

Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset

Sources

NTSB record NYC84FA274
Event ID
20001214X40848
Case number
NYC84FA274
Dataset
historical-pre2008
Source SHA-256
89e2df6d848e7ab3b42e7d7c7a03ff403303057a26ca04c95b3ea67201c3ce74
Source notes (5)
  • 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: 5295cf10663d3144c63457eb6b5cb5c2c35c960f5e514445e57d1f395ff9e420; retrieved 2026-09-21T05:23:54.801Z.
  • Corrected after a review of the NTSB narrative, which states these values explicitly: destination. The narrative states that during the night arrival "THE PLT WAS CLEARED FOR A VOR/CIRCLING APCH TO THE SIDNEY MUNI ARPT" and the airplane crashed about 1 mile north of the airport; the destination was not recorded.