NYC06FA025 · Cessna 172A
Cessna 172A and Joseph E. Crosby Zodiac CH 601HDS · Accident: midair collision en route
Narrative check · The NTSB narrative appears to contradict this record's injuries. Values are shown as recorded, not corrected; compare with the narrative.
Event
- NTSB case
- NYC06FA025
- 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
Aircraft 1 · Cessna 172A
- 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
- N7467T
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From N91 · Erwinna, PATo N91
- 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
- En route · 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
- 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 · Joseph E. Crosby Zodiac CH 601HDS
- Aircraft type
- Joseph E Crosby ZODIAC CH 601HDS
- 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
- N6384E
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Alexandria Field Airport (N85), Pittstown, NJTo Alexandria Field Airport (N85)
- 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
- En route · descent
- 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
Cause areas
- Pilot in command › Visual lookout, inadequate
- Pilot of other aircraft › Visual lookout, inadequate
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
A high wing Cessna 172 airplane was in level flight about 1,800 feet msl, when it and a descending amateur built Zodiac airplane collided. Neither pilot was communicating with any air traffic control facility. Reported visibility was 10 miles, with high, scattered clouds. The Cessna pilot survived the collision with minor injuries, and was able to make a successful forced landing. The Zodiac pilot was fatally injured following an uncontrolled descent. According to radar and GPS derived track data, the Cessna was heading approximately north-northeast, and the Zodiac was in a shallow, 150 feet per minute descent, heading southeast. Witness marks and damage to both airplanes are consistent with the right wing of the Zodiac descending and crossing in front of the Cessna from about the Cessna's ten o'clock position, and colliding with the Cessna's propeller, cowling, and engine. FAA regulation 91.113, states, in part: "...vigilance shall be maintained by each person operating an aircraft so as to see and avoid other aircraft."
Probable cause
The inadequate visual lookout of the pilots in both airplanes, which resulted in a midair collision during cruise flight.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record NYC06FA025
- Event ID
- 20051122X01867
- Case number
- NYC06FA025
- 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: cbd23d893d8c142a9aefc4a73dd01620aed872608737469035ef3e90fe9f8716; retrieved 2026-09-20T17:46:37.355Z.