NYC03FA132 · Aviat A-1
Aviat A-1 · Accident: loss of control in flight during landing
From Ellington Airport (7B9) to Tyringham, MA (no airport)
Event
- NTSB case
- NYC03FA132
- 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
- Unknown
- 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
Aviat A-1
- Aircraft type
- Aviat A-1
- 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
- N49369
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Ellington Airport (7B9), Ellington, CTTo Tyringham, MA (no airport)
- 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
- Landing
- 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
- Loss of control in flight
- 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 › Incapacitation(cardiovascular)
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
Witnesses near the accident site recalled observing the airplane approach the airstrip heading north. The airplane then reversed its direction and began to head south. The witnesses then heard the airplane's engine quit, followed by the sound of a crash. The airplane came to rest about 300 yards beyond the airstrip, in a near vertical attitude, alongside a riverbank, where a post-crash fire ensued. The report of the autopsy performed on the pilot noted "Final Anatomic Diagnoses" including: "Multiple traumatic injuries," "Hypertrophy of heart," "Arteriosclerosis," and "Acute intramural hemorrhage." The "Clinical Summary" noted in part that the pilot had "a past medical history of coronary heart disease. " Review of the pilot's personal medical records revealed that he had a history of hypertension, elevated cholesterol, and coronary artery disease. Post-accident toxicological testing noted 11% carbon monoxide detected in the blood, and the prescription medications atenolol and diltiazem detected in blood and urine. Review of FAA medical records revealed that the pilot indicated on his two most recent applications for a third class medical certificate "No" in response to "Do You Currently Use Any Medication," have "Heart or vascular trouble," or "High or low blood pressure."
Probable cause
The pilot's incapacitation due to a heart attack, which resulted in a loss of aircraft control.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record NYC03FA132
- Event ID
- 20030702X00999
- Case number
- NYC03FA132
- 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, coordinates. 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: f292bd96ce4a61faf40bc21938572a4668bf5a9cb0bcb294eff6fbb65a1a5e3c; retrieved 2026-09-20T19:08:50.954Z.