NYC83FA260 · Cessna 170B
Cessna 170B · Accident: in flight collision with object on approach
From Bangor International Airport (BGR) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- NYC83FA260
- 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
- 3 · 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
Cessna 170B
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 170
- 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
- N2429D
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Bangor International Airport (BGR), Bangor, METo 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 · VFR go-around
- 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 › Flight into known adverse weather, attempted
- Pilot in command › Go-around, delayed
- Pilot in command › Proper alignment, not maintained
- Pilot in command › Weather evaluation, inaccurate
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Livermore Falls, ME, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
THE ACFT COLLIDED WITH TREES DURING A GO-AROUND AT NIGHT IN A GROUND FOG. THE PLT HAD CALLED HIS WIFE AND DISCUSSED THE WEATHER. HE DECIDED ON AN ALTERNATE ARPT IF THE WEATHER CREATED PROBLEMS. HE HAD FLOWN INTO BOWMAN FIELD MANY TIMES AT NIGHT AND KNEW THE FIELD WELL. IN THE ARPT GUIDE, IN REMARKS, IT STATES: NO NIGHT OPERATIONS EXCEPT IN AN EMERGENCY. IT ALSO STATES RWY 02: TREE, RWY 20: TREE. THE BEACON LIGHTS ATOP THE HANGER CAME ON AT 2230. AT 2235 AN APPROACHING ACFT WAS HEARD. THE ACFT APPROACHED FROM THE NORTH AND THE POWER WAS HEARD TO INCREASE AS THE ACFT PASSED OVER THE TREES. POWER WAS REDUCED AND THEN THERE WAS A SUDDEN BURST OF POWER FOLLOWED BY THE SOUNDS OF TREE CONTACT BEFORE A CRASH. A WITNESS SAW THE ACFT DESCEND INTO THE FOG AND CLIMB BACK OUT BEFORE THE CONTACT WITH TREES. THE WEATHER WAS CLEAR OF CLOUDS, GOOD VISIBILITY, WIND CALM, GROUND FOG ABOUT 5 TO 15 FT AGL IN PATCHES.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record NYC83FA260
- Event ID
- 20001214X44669
- Case number
- NYC83FA260
- 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 1983-10-01.
- API snapshot SHA-256: c10ca09bd4237da595828131b35b349fd067783feb3402d0e693e214dd367ab1; retrieved 2026-09-21T06:05:32.669Z.