NYC07FA009 · Piper PA-46-310P
Piper PA-46-310P · Accident: in flight collision with terrain/water on approach
From Fort Meade Executive Airport (FME) to Brookeridge Air Park (LL22)
Event
- NTSB case
- NYC07FA009
- 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
- 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
Piper PA-46-310P
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-46
- 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
- N9130N
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Fort Meade Executive Airport (FME), Odenton, MDTo Brookeridge Air Park (LL22), Downers Grove, IL
- 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 final
- 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
- 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 › Altitude/clearance, not maintained
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot was attempting to depart from an airport located within the Washington D.C. Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ). Prior to departure, the pilot contacted an Automated Flight Service Station to file an instrument flight rules (IFR) flight plan. During the conversation with the briefer, the pilot was asked if he was aware that he was departing an ADIZ. He responded in the affirmative. During a later conversation with line service personnel the pilot was reminded that he should contact air traffic control via telephone prior to departing in order to obtain a departure clearance. Shortly after departing, the pilot contacted air traffic control via radio and advised that he would like to obtain a clearance. The controller informed the pilot that he was violating the ADIZ, and that he should land at the departure airport immediately. The controller then told the pilot "just turn it off, land, and call us on the phone for your clearance." The pilot acknowledged the controller, and no further communications were received. Radar data showed that after turning onto a downwind traffic pattern leg, the airplane then turned toward the runway and descended. The final radar target was observed at 300 feet, in the vicinity of the accident site. Witnesses described watching the airplane in the airport traffic pattern, and that it was traveling very fast and closer to the runway on the downwind leg than normal. The airplane entered a steep left descending turn back towards the runway before it disappeared from view, and the sounds of impact were heard. Review of the pilot’s FAA airman file revealed that about 2 1/2 years prior to the accident flight the accident pilot had acted as pilot-in-command of another flight, which operated within the Washington, D.C. ADIZ without following the operating requirements and procedures specified at the time. Examination of the wreckage revealed no evidence of a preimpact mechanical failure or malfunction.
Probable cause
The pilot's failure to maintain adequate clearance from terrain during the approach. Contributing was the pilot's self-induced pressure to land the airplane after being informed by air traffic control that he was not operating in compliance with the ADIZ procedures.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record NYC07FA009
- Event ID
- 20061031X01581
- Case number
- NYC07FA009
- 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: b6779fe85f7a6bb7260430260225d25c868f6de2782c451ca34502dfc74203b5; retrieved 2026-09-20T17:01:28.890Z.