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Falcon Air Cessna 402B accident

22 Dec 1984 · Rochester, NY, United States

Cessna 402B · Accident during initial climb

From Frederick Douglass Greater Rochester International Airport (ROC) to Teterboro Airport (TEB)

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Event

NTSB case
NYC85FA047
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
Charter & commuter
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

Cessna 402B

Aircraft type
Cessna 402
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
N8064Q
Operator
Falcon Air
Onboard fatalities
Unknown
Route
From Frederick Douglass Greater Rochester International Airport (ROC), Rochester, NYTo Teterboro Airport (TEB), TETERBORO, 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
Initial climb
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
Miscellaneous/other
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
Stall
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 › Airspeed, not maintained
  • Pilot in command › Inattentive
  • Pilot in command › Preflight planning/preparation, inadequate
  • Pilot in command › Stall, inadvertent

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

NTSB narrative

PRIOR TO TKF THE PLT WAS INFORMED OF WIND SHEAR AS CENTERFIELD WINDS AS 270 DEG AT 25 KTS GUST TO 46 KTS & NW BOUNDARY WINDS AS 280 DEG AT 13 KTS. DURING TKF THE PLT REPORTED AN OPENED DOOR & REQUESTED TO RETURN TO LAND. THE ACFT TURNED LEFT AND DESCENDED TO THE GROUND. EXAMINATION OF THE ACFT DID NOT DISCLOSE EVIDENCE OF MALFUNCTION. EXAMINATION OF THE ACFT DOORS REVEALED THE RIGHTSIDE CARGO DOOR SECURING MECHANISMS WERE RELATIVELY UNDAMAGED. FLIGHT TEST CONDUCTED TO EVALUATE THE EFFECTS OF A OPENED DOOR DISCLOSED IN PART THE FOLLOWING. THE DOOR WILL OPEN AND REMAIN OPEN DURING ROTATION; RESULTS IN NOISE & VIBRATION; NO ABNORMAL FLIGHT CHARACTERISTICS; NO SIGNIFICANT CHANGE IN MULTIENGINE CLIMB PERFORMANCE. PLT LANDING IN JET ACFT PRIOR TO ACCIDENT REPORTED MODERATE TURBULENCE WITH A PLUS OR MINUS 10 TO 15 KTS CHANGE IN AIRSPEED FROM 2000 FT MSL TO THE SURFACE

Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset

Sources

NTSB record NYC85FA047
Event ID
20001214X41877
Case number
NYC85FA047
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: 70a93dd94a14d84ea09e1d6643b2918d4724fb1968f64744e4da4e425632758b; retrieved 2026-09-18T14:27:14.289Z.