Learjet 35A N452DA

Summary

On 15 May 2017 at about 19:29 local time, a Learjet 35A registered N452DA was involved in an accident near Teterboro, New Jersey, United States. 2 people were on board and 2 died. The aircraft was destroyed. The NTSB has published a probable cause for this accident; it is quoted in full below.

Date

15 May 2017 at 19:29

Classification

Accident

Location

Teterboro, New Jersey, United States

Nearest airport

Teterboro (TEB)

Coordinates

40.8294, -74.0603

Aircraft

Learjet 35A

Registration

N452DA

Category

Airplane

Year built

1981

Engines

2

Operator

Not recorded

Operating rule

Part 91: General Aviation

Purpose of flight

Positioning

Phase of flight

Not recorded

Route

Phillidelphia → Teterboro

Aircraft damage

Destroyed

Weather

VMC

Light

Day

NTSB number

CEN17MA183

2 people died.

The pilot-in-command's (PIC) attempt to salvage an unstabilized visual approach, which resulted in an aerodynamic stall at low altitude. Contributing to the accident was the PIC's decision to allow an unapproved second-in-command to act as pilot flying, the PIC's inadequate and incomplete preflight planning, and the flight crew's lack of an approach briefing. Also contributing to the accident were Trans-Pacific Jets' lack of safety programs that would have enabled the company to identify and correct patterns of poor performance and procedural noncompliance and the Federal Aviation Administration's ineffective Safety Assurance System procedures, which failed to identify these company oversight deficiencies.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record. This site does not paraphrase or interpret it.

Read the full NTSB narrative

NTSB investigators traveled in support of this investigation and used data obtained from various sources to prepare this aircraft accident report. The NTSB's full report is available at http://www.ntsb.gov/investigations/AccidentReports/Pages/AccidentReports.aspx. The Aircraft Accident Report number is NTSB/AAR-19/02. On May 15, 2017, about 1529 eastern daylight time, a Learjet 35A, N452DA, departed controlled flight while on a circling approach to runway 1 at Teterboro Airport (TEB), Teterboro, New Jersey, and impacted a commercial building and parking lot. The pilot-in-command and the second-in-command died; no one on the ground was injured. The airplane was destroyed by impact forces and postcrash fire. The airplane was registered to A&C Big Sky Aviation, LLC, and was operated by Trans-Pacific Air Charter, LLC, under the provisions of Title 14 Code of Federal Regulations Part 91 as a positioning flight. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed, and an instrument flight rules flight plan was filed. The flight departed from Philadelphia International Airport, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, about 1504 and was destined for TEB.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record.