NTSB NYC87LA041 — 1986-11-30 · ERIE, Pennsylvania, United States

N117EA has since been reassigned. It is now registered to a different aircraft (ECLIPSE AVIATION CORP EA500), which was not involved in this event.

Aircraft involved

N117EA Cessna 441 None

Factual narrative

REASON FOR THE CESSNA TO VEER IN A SEMI-CIRCLE AND COLLIDE WITH ANOTHER AIRCRAFT IS UNDETERMINED. EXAMINATION OF THE START LOCK ASSEMBLIES COULD NOT BE COMPLETED DUE TO THE EXTENSIVE IMPACT AND FIRE DAMAGE. THE ACFT WAS BEING PREPARED FOR A FLT. DURING A MANUAL SPEED GOVERNOR CHECK ON THE LEFT ENG THE ACFT VEERED IN A SEMI-CIRCLE. AN ATTEMPT TO EXAMINE THE ACFT START LOCKS WAS NEGATED BY THE FIRE DAMAGE FROM THE COLLISION. Source: NTSB Aviation Accident Database (Pre-2008 Archive) Retrieved: 2026-02-12

Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file NTSB_1986_NYC87LA041.txt. Findings + structured fields enriched from FAA avall.mdb. Full investigation docket on data.ntsb.gov ↗.

Search this event elsewhere

External sources are reported, not agency: signal that something happened, not fact about what happened.

Related research

Matched on aircraft type. All research papers

Embry-Riddle Scholarly Commons 2016 · Conference paper Late Morning Concurrent Sessions: Innovations in Aviation Technologies: Presentation: Wingsuit Materials Research – The Effect of Currently Used Materials on Wingsuit Aerodynamics.

While wingsuit flight is exhilarating and one of the fastest growing facets of sport skydiving, current wingsuit performance is poor at best.