OPS11IA054 · Dassault FALCON900EX
Dassault FALCON900EX and Cessna 680 and 1 more aircraft · Incident: fuel related during takeoff
Narrative check · The NTSB narrative appears to contradict this record's registration. Values are shown as recorded, not corrected; compare with the narrative.
Event
- NTSB case
- OPS11IA054
- 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
- Incident
- 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
- Unknown
- 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 · Dassault FALCON900EX
- Aircraft type
- Dassault FALCON900
- Category
- Airplane · from aircraft type
- 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
- PHILC
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Teterboro Airport (KTEB), Teterboro, NJTo Boston Logan International Airport (KBOS), Boston, MA
- 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
- Unknown
- 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
- Takeoff
- Defining eventThe 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
- Fuel related
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- None
Aircraft 2 · Cessna 680
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 680
- 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
- N604CS
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Ithaca Tompkins Regional Airport (KITH), Ithaca, NYTo 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
- Unknown
- 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 · IFR final approach
- Defining eventThe 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
- Air traffic event
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- None
Aircraft 3 · Cessna S550
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 550
- 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
- N406CT
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From UnknownTo 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
- Unknown
- 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 · IFR final approach
- Defining eventThe 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
- Air traffic event
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- None
Cause areas
- Personnel issues › Action/decision
- Personnel issues › Experience/knowledge
- Personnel issues › Task performance
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
Two operational errors occurred involving an F900, a C680 and a C550. The F900 had departed from runway 24 and, after reporting an abnormal fuel indicator light, stated that he needed to return to the airport. The tower local controller directed the F900 to enter the right downwind leg of the traffic pattern for runway 19 and attempted to sequence the airplane in front of the C680 that was arriving on a straight-in approach to runway 19. The C680 was directed to maintain minimum approach speed for sequencing behind the F900 and was notified of the F900 on the downwind leg. The local controller sequenced the F900 to follow an aircraft on short final for runway 19, but the F900 overshot the final approach course for runway 19 and was subsequently directed to enter the right base leg of the pattern for runway 24. The F900 and the C680 conflicted with each other with closest proximity being .6 miles lateral and 100 feet vertical.
Seeing the developing conflict between the C680 and the C550, approach control directed the C550 to climb to 3000 feet and asked the local controller what heading the C680 was on. When asked, the C680 reported that his heading was “forty degrees continuing a turn to the left.” The local controller advised the front line manager that the C680 was heading 040 degrees, which was relayed to the approach controller, who then directed the local controller to have the C680 climb to 3000 feet. The tower controller then relayed the instruction and, thinking the C680 was on a steady heading, directed the C680 to commence an immediate right turn to de-conflict from the C550. The crew of the C680 advised they were in a hard left turn with traffic to their right and did not comply with the instruction. The C680 and C550 came within 200 feet vertical and 0.44 miles lateral of each other.
Probable cause
The pilot of the F900 overshooting of the final approach course, which conflicted with traffic in the pattern. Contributing to the accident was the lack of appropriate coordination between the tower controller and the approach controller.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record OPS11IA054
- Event ID
- 20101022X34140
- Case number
- OPS11IA054
- Dataset
- full-current
- Source SHA-256
- 5cf380f0061817c0331a6b2d8cc7e0ee3a79bea469a1001dc5c10e56f35f5ab3
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, damage. 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: 1bbdded3faaac4798b93b831ed2f8c56974aa80db544f42763d3afbdb19767da; retrieved 2026-09-13T18:17:33.144Z.