ERA17LA337 · Airmax Construcoes Aeronautica SEAMAX-M22
Waterbird Holdings Airmax Construcoes Aeronautica SEAMAX-M22 · Accident: collision during takeoff/landing
From Francis S Gabreski Airport (FOK) to New Fairfield, CT (no airport)
Event
- NTSB case
- ERA17LA337
- 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
Airmax Construcoes Aeronautica SEAMAX-M22
- Aircraft type
- Airmax Construcoes Aeronautica SEAMAX-M22
- 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
- N885PR
- Operator
- Waterbird Holdings
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Francis S Gabreski Airport (FOK), Westhampton Beach, NYTo New Fairfield, CT (no airport)
- Aircraft age
- About 6 years (built 2011)
- 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 · landing roll
- 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
- Collision during takeoff/landing
- 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
- Environmental issues › Physical environment
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The private pilot of the amphibious airplane reported that he performed a fly-by of the lake he intended to land on to ensure that there were no boats or obstacles in the water. Seeing none and observing calm conditions, he conducted the landing, during which the airplane impacted a submerged object. The impact compromised the hull allowing water to enter, and the airplane subsequently sank. Pine and bark debris was found in the damaged area of the hull. The pilot reported there were no mechanical malfunctions or failures that would have precluded normal operation.
Probable cause
Collision with a submerged object during a water landing.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ERA17LA337
- Event ID
- 20170915X63845
- Case number
- ERA17LA337
- 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. 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: a85fec0b266664dbd0c4ec9a3971d6f09f026b7d467eeeb035f286a7f4f11eee; retrieved 2026-09-16T05:50:54.388Z.