NYC85FA014 · Cessna 150M
Air Ambulance and Charter Cessna 150M · Accident: in flight encounter with weather while maneuvering
From Rhode Island T. F. Green International Airport (PVD) to PRUDENCE ISLAND, RI
Event
- NTSB case
- NYC85FA014
- 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
- 2 · 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
- Instrument Meteorological Cond
Cessna 150M
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 150
- 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
- N45397
- Operator
- Air Ambulance and Charter
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Rhode Island T. F. Green International Airport (PVD), Providence, RITo PRUDENCE ISLAND, RI
- 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
- Maneuvering
- 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 encounter with weather
- 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 › Clearance, not maintained
- Pilot in command › Judgment, poor
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Providence, RI, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
ACFT COLLIDED WITH THE WATERS OF NARRAGANSETT BAY AT A LOCATION APRX 1 MILE FROM BOYS TOWN ARPT (DESTINATION OF RECORD),IN WATER APRX 8 FT DEEP. THE WX WAS IMC AT DEPARTURE (1845 EDT) AND THE ATP INSTRUMENT RATED PLT HAD REQUESTED AND BEEN GRANTED A SPECIAL VFR CLEARANCE OUT THE CONTROL ZONE TO THE SOUTHEAST. THE CONTROLLER LATER STATED THAT HE AND ANOTHER FAA EMPLOYEE ON DUTY HAD DISCUSSED THE REQUEST FOR SPECIAL CLEARANCE AND HAD EXPRESSED SKEPTICISM AT A SVFR OPERATION IN THE EXISTING WX CONDITIONS. ATTEMPTS BY THE FAA CONTROLLERS TO OBTAIN MORE CURRENT WX AT QUONSET STATE & NEWPORT STATE ARPTS WERE UNSUCCESSFUL. QUONSET TWR DID ACKNOWLEDGE THAT A 1 AND 1/2 MILE VISIBILITY EXISTED AT THE ARPT AT TIME OF ACKNOWLEDGEMENT. THIS INFO WAS PASSED TO THE PLT OF N45397 PRIOR TO DEPARTURE. THE ACFT WAS TRACKED ON BRITE RADAR OUT THE CONTROL ZONE. THE ACFT WAS CALLED IN AS OVERDUE AT 2354 GMT (APRX 1 HR AFTER DEPARTURE). WHEN THE ACFT WAS LOCATED THE NEXT MORNING, DIVERS FROM THE CG FOUND A FEMALE BODY IN THE ACFT. THE DROWNED PLT WAS FOUND ON A BEACH 11/11
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record NYC85FA014
- Event ID
- 20001214X41457
- Case number
- NYC85FA014
- 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: fc209c5d83798a32b6ef8d76d28b5ea4e7004ca7f1a6d5ec8813eaa6cd318d5f; retrieved 2026-09-21T05:16:34.937Z.