NYC82DNC12 · Boeing PT-17
Boeing PT-17 · Accident: in flight collision with terrain/water en route
From HAMLIN, ME to HAMLIN, ME
Event
- NTSB case
- NYC82DNC12
- 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
- Visual Meteorological Cond
Boeing PT-17
- Aircraft type
- Boeing PT-17
- 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
- N1344M
- Operator
- Keith Mcdonald
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From HAMLIN, METo HAMLIN, ME
- 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 137: Agricultural
- 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
- En route · climb to cruise
- 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 terrain/water
- 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/mush
- 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 › Airspeed, misjudged
- Pilot in command › Altitude, misjudged
- Pilot in command › Distance, misjudged
- Pilot in command › Stall/mush, inadvertent
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Hamlin, ME, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
THE PILOT DEPARTED A PRIVATE STRIP WITH 150 GALLONS OF WATER MIXED WITH FUNGICIDE AND INSECTICIDE. AFTER TAKEOFF, HE TURNED AND BEGAN CLIMBING OVER RISING TERRAIN. THE TERRAIN SLOPED UPWARD FROM A RIVER, RISING ABOUT 400 FT. THE PILOT REPORTED THAT HE FAILED TO OUT-CLIMB THE TERRAIN. THE AIRCRAFT SETTLED IN A POTATOE FIELD NEAR THE TOP OF THE RIDGE AND OVERTURNED. REPORTEDLY, THE LOAD WAS NOT JETTISONED BEFORE IMPACT. THE TEMPERATURE AND ELEVATION WERE ABOUT 85 DEGREES AND 650 FT, RESPECTIVELY.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record NYC82DNC12
- Event ID
- 20020917X04015
- Case number
- NYC82DNC12
- 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: 11e54952f59caf8c47bb0004d89719a945b211bd3b39832bdf2f332103e083d7; retrieved 2026-09-24T01:55:16.331Z.