NYC08LA004 · Cirrus Design SR22
Cirrus Design SR22 · Accident: on ground/water collision with object while taxiing
From N51 · Readington, NY to Hartford Brainard Airport (HFD)
Narrative check · The NTSB narrative appears to contradict this record's aircraft involved. Values are shown as recorded, not corrected; compare with the narrative.
Event
- NTSB case
- NYC08LA004
- 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
- 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
Cirrus Design SR22 Possible conflict
- Aircraft type
- Cirrus SR22
- 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
- N5205X
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From N51 · Readington, NYTo Hartford Brainard Airport (HFD), Hartford, CT
- 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
- Taxi · from runway
- 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
- On ground/water collision with object
- 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 › Clearance, inadequate
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The airplane was substantially damaged when it struck four parked airplanes while taxiing for parking after landing. According to the pilot, he initially received taxi instructions from the air traffic control tower, and then was guided by marshallers who used hand signals to convey further instructions. A nearby aviation convention resulted in additional aircraft at the airport, and airplanes were parked on the grass along the right side of the taxiway. The marshaller stated that he instructed the pilot to slow down, but that the airplane "continued approximately 300 feet," until it collided with a parked airplane. The passenger stated that at the time of the initial collision, the airplane was traveling at a speed of approximately 10 to 12 knots, and that just prior to the initial collision, he informed the pilot that he was "too far to the right." The right wing tip of the accident airplane struck the propeller and spinner of an unoccupied SR22 that was parked facing the taxiway. The impact caused the pilot's hand to advance the throttle, then the accident airplane turned rapidly to the right and struck three additional parked airplanes. Subsequent to the accident, the pilot stated that being on the taxiway centerline gave him a false sense of security, that his "gaze and attention shifted" to the marshaller, and that he failed to recognize that he would not clear the parked airplanes unless he deviated significantly from the centerline. The pilot did not report any brake or steering system malfunctions and there was no indication that the marshaller signaled the pilot to deviate from the centerline to avoid the collision. On-site measurements confirmed that maintaining the taxiway centerline would result in minimal or no clearance with the parked airplanes.
Probable cause
The pilot's failure to maintain adequate clearance from a parked airplane while taxiing. Contributing to the accident was the proximity of the parked airplanes to the taxiway and the failure of the marshaller to provide adequate guidance.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record NYC08LA004
- Event ID
- 20081219X05830
- Case number
- NYC08LA004
- 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: 74ec1197664bb881a9e64d28304e616bd8ce1e51661fc91987b0b138b4996d74; retrieved 2026-09-22T03:22:26.572Z.