NYC83FA128 · Cessna 172RG
Cessna 172RG · Accident: in flight collision with object on approach
From Pittsfield Municipal Airport (PSF) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- NYC83FA128
- 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
- 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 172RG
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 172
- 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
- N6207R
- Operator
- DR. Howard A. Walker · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Pittsfield Municipal Airport (PSF), Pittsfield, MATo not recorded
- 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 · IFR final approach
- 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
- Substantial
Cause areas
- Pilot in command › IFR procedure, improper
- Pilot in command › Minimum descent altitude, not maintained
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
DURING AN IFR ARRIVAL, APRX 1 MI FROM THE OUTER MARKER (OM), THE PLT ASKED FOR A DESCENT FROM 3300 FT MSL & WAS CLEARED FOR THE LOCALIZER, RWY 1 APCH. THE PUBLISHED MIN ALT AT THE OM WAS 2100 FT. THE PLT REPORTED AT THE OM, AND 11 SECONDS LATER, THE CONTROLLER ASKED IF HE WANTED TO MAKE A 360 DEG TURN TO LOSE ALT. THE PLT DECLINED, BUT HE MADE 2 S-TURNS WHILE DESCENDING ON THE APCH. HE STATED THAT AT 800 FT MSL, HE APPLIED CRUISE POWER, CHECKED HIS TIME & NOTED HE HAD 30 SECONDS REMAINING TO GET TO THE MISSED APCH POINT. SHORTLY AFTER THAT, HE HEARD A 'LOUD BANG.' HE THEN MADE A MISSED APCH, DIVERTED TO BURLINGTON, VT & LANDED FROM AN ILS APCH. AFTER LANDING FOREIGN OBJECT DAMAGE WAS FOUND ON THE LEADINGEDGES OF THE WINGS, PROP SPINNER & LEFT HORIZONTAL STABILIZER. TREE FOLIAGE WAS ALSO FOUND ON THE ACFT. THE CONTROLLER STATED THE ARTS TARGET WENT TO A NON-BEACON STATUS AT THE APCH END OF THE RWY (AT 500 FT MSL). THE MDA WAS 720 FT MSL & THE MIN CEILING & VISIBILITY WERE 400 FT & 1 MI. APRX 4 MI SOUTHEAST, THE 0034 WX WAS 400 FT OBSCD, 7/8 MI VIS, FOG.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record NYC83FA128
- Event ID
- 20001214X43116
- Case number
- NYC83FA128
- 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: 80154d709a5ed3f125c14bcaa1bc2bb40b5234711efec5a874918902aec63a4d; retrieved 2026-09-23T22:05:05.385Z.