NYC84FA314 · Piper PA-32R-300
Piper PA-32R-300 · Accident: undershoot on approach
From Katama Airpark (1B2) to Linden Airport (LDJ)
Event
- NTSB case
- NYC84FA314
- 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
- 6 · 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
Piper PA-32R-300
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-32
- 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
- N478KT
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Katama Airpark (1B2), Edgartown, MATo Linden Airport (LDJ), Linden, 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 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
- Undershoot
- 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
- Utility pole
- 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 › Altitude, inadequate
- Pilot in command › Clearance, not maintained
- Pilot in command › Proper glidepath, not performed
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Linden, NJ, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
ACFT COLLIDED WITH UTILITY POLE DURING A NIGHT VISUAL LNDG. THE POLE IS LOCATED ABOUT 583' FROM THE RWY THRESHOLD AND IS 58' HIGH. THE POLE WAS UNMARKED. THE PLT MADE 1 PREVIOUS NIGHT LNDG. AT THE ARPT AND 5 TOTAL LNDGS AT THE ARPT. THE INVESTIGATION DID NOT DISCLOSE EVIDENCE OF MALFUNCTION TO THE ACFT. THERE WAS NO PHYSICAL IMPAIRMENT OR INCAPACITATION OF THE PLT. THE ELT WAS DEFECTIVE AND DID NOT ACTIVATE. A SEARCH WAS CONDUCTED ABOUT 1.5 HR AFTER THE ACCIDENT AND THE ACFT WAS FOUND ON THE ARPT ABOUT 30 MINS LATER.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record NYC84FA314
- Event ID
- 20001214X41189
- Case number
- NYC84FA314
- 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: local date, investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 1984-09-17.
- API snapshot SHA-256: c2fb655181496bbd2c0ef90ddd7c39991f2a7f46d14c29258c3ea8021f378f6f; retrieved 2026-09-21T05:20:11.261Z.