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NYC82FA210 · Cessna 150M

29 Aug 1982 · Fairfield, NJ, United States

Liberty Aviation Cessna 150M and General aviation Cessna 172M · Accident: midair collision on approach

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Event

NTSB case
NYC82FA210
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
Visual Meteorological Cond

Aircraft 1 · 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
N9121U
Onboard fatalities
Unknown
Route
From Essex County Airport (CDW), Fairfield, NJTo Essex County Airport (CDW), Fairfield, 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 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 pattern downwind
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
Midair collision
DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
Substantial

Aircraft 2 · Cessna 172M

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
N8998V
Onboard fatalities
Unknown
Route
From TETERBORO, NJTo 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 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
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
Midair collision
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 › Identification of aircraft visually, not attained
  • Pilot in command › Visual lookout, inadequate
  • Pilot in command › Visual lookout, not maintained
  • Pilot of other aircraft › Visual lookout, inadequate
  • Pilot of other aircraft › Visual lookout, not maintained

Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Fairfield, NJ, the place the record names. Not the accident site.

NTSB narrative

THE C-172 HAD BEEN CLEARED FOR AN OVERHEAD APPROACH TO ENTER A RIGHT DOWNWIND. THE PLT REPORTED OVERHEAD & ROGERED THAT HE SAW THE TRAFFIC COMING UP ON MIDFIELD. HE ALSO OKAYED THAT HE COULD FOLLOW THE TRAFFIC. HE WAS THEN INSTRUCTED TO START HIS RIGHT TURN. THE TOWER THEN TRANSMITTED TO THE C-150 ON DOWNWIND "ON THE DOWNWIND WATCH THE TRAFFIC COMING IN FROM OVERHEAD SIR." THE C-150 & C-172 THEN COLLIDED. THE C-150 HAD BEEN PERFORMING TOUCH & GO LANDINGS. AFTER HIS THIRD DEPARTURE HE CLIMBED TO 700 FT, MADE A RIGHT 90 DEG TURN & CLIMBED TO 1,200 FT. THE ACFT WAS LEVELED & A RIGHT 90 DEG TURN TO DOWNWIND WAS MADE. THE COLLISION OCCURRED AS THE ACFT ROLLED OUT. PUBLISHED TOWER CLIMB-OUT INSTRUCTIONS FOR RWY 22 IS A 20 DEG RIGHT TURN AS SOON AS PRACTICABLE, CLIMB TO 1,000 FT MSL BEFORE ANY FURTHER TURNS. OF THE THREE CONTROLLERS IN THE TOWER, TWO WERE NOT FACILITY-RATED & WERE IN TRAINING. THE TRAFFIC PATTERN WAS CONGESTED WITH ACFT IN CLOSED PATTERNS.

Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset

Sources

NTSB record NYC82FA210
Event ID
20020917X04032
Case number
NYC82FA210
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: 74e748ad4227f4f52578c600eb35c289d8233c45ee5d747699498479295a57d4; retrieved 2026-09-21T07:52:58.145Z.