GAA19CA264 · Aero Commander 695 A
Jersey Ordnance Aero Commander 695 A · Accident: wildlife encounter (non-bird) during takeoff
From South Jersey Regional Airport (VAY) to Nashua Airport / Boire Field (ASH)
Event
- NTSB case
- GAA19CA264
- 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
Aero Commander 695 A
- Aircraft type
- Aero Commander 695
- 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
- N51DM
- Operator
- Jersey Ordnance
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From South Jersey Regional Airport (VAY), Mount Holly, NJTo Nashua Airport / Boire Field (ASH), Nashua, NH
- Aircraft age
- About 38 years (built 1981)
- 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
- 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
- Wildlife encounter (non-bird)
- 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 pilot reported that, during takeoff, just as the airplane became airborne, a deer struck the right side of the fuselage. The pilot determined that there would not be sufficient runway remaining to land, so he quickly performed a "controllability test," which indicated that pitch control was abnormal. He determined that he was able to control the airplane enough to enter the traffic pattern and attempt a landing. The airplane landed hard, and the pilot then initiated reverse thrust and taxied to the ramp without further incident.
The pilot reported that he never saw the deer, but seconds before impact, the copilot saw the deer on the right side of the runway.
The airplane sustained substantial damage to the right elevator and horizontal stabilizer.
The pilot reported that there were no preaccident mechanical failures or malfunctions with the airplane that would have precluded normal operation.
The Federal Aviation Administration Airport Facility Directory page for the airport stated, in part, the following:
"Deer on and [in vicinity of airport]."
Probable cause
The airplane’s impact with a deer on the runway during takeoff.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record GAA19CA264
- Event ID
- 20190512X92801
- Case number
- GAA19CA264
- Dataset
- full-current
- Source SHA-256
- 5cf380f0061817c0331a6b2d8cc7e0ee3a79bea469a1001dc5c10e56f35f5ab3
Source notes (5)
- 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: 8be9959f9e213c03f61e0edf9414dcfa10d2537aeafcb36771786e33684e8826; retrieved 2026-09-16T08:59:04.943Z.
- Corrected after a review of the NTSB narrative, which states these values explicitly: departure. VAY is South Jersey Regional Airport at Mount Holly, NJ, which is also the recorded accident location; 'Mount Holy' is a misspelling.