Individually Owned: 150,657
Corporate Owned: 137,281
Greenwood Lake Airport
Aircraft Accident/Incident Report
West Milford, New Jersey 07480
Monday, May 31, 1999 18:30 EDT
NTSB Narrative Summary Released at Completion of Accident
No anomalies were noticed during the engine run-up checks. After flying for about an hour, the instructor with two students entered the traffic pattern to conduct a normal approach, and landing. The wind sock was fully extended, and indicating winds out of the south. At 5 to 10 feet above the runway, the instructor felt the student could not complete the landing safely. The instructor took the controls, and executed a go-around. He applied full power, and retracted the flaps to 10 degrees. After retracting the flaps, the instructor felt the airplane was 'sluggish,' and not climbing, so he lowered the nose to maintain airspeed. An 'overwhelming' gust then pushed the airplane off the right side of the runway, and it descended into rough terrain. The stall warning horn was not on during the go-around, but the instructor felt the airplane was close to stalling. After the accident, the Engine was run on the airframe, and no pre impact failures were identified. The airplane's information manual calls for 20 degrees of flaps initially during a go around, and 55 knots of airspeed. Stall speed was listed as 44 knot with flaps down and power off.
NTSB Probable Cause Narrative
The flight instructors failure to maintain climb airspeed during the go-around, which degraded climb performance, resulting in an in-flight collision with terrain. Factors in the accident were, delay in executing a go-around, retracting the flaps to 10 degrees prematurely, and high density altitude.
Event Information
| Type of Event | Accident |
| Event Date | 5/31/1999 |
| Event Day of the Week | Monday |
| Time of Event | 1830 |
| Event Time Zone | Eastern Daylight Time |
| Event City | WEST MILFORD |
| Event State | NEW JERSEY |
| Event Country | -- |
| Zipcode of the event site | 07480 |
| Event Date Year | 1999 |
| Event Date Month | 5 |
| MidAir Collision Indicator | No |
| On Ground Collision occurred ? | No |
| Event Location Latitude | |
| Event Location Longitude | |
| Event Location Airport | GREENWOOD LAKE |
| Event Location Nearest Airport ID | 4N1 |
| Indicates whether the acc/inc occurred off or on an airport | On Airport |
| Distance from airport in statute miles | -- |
| Degrees magnetic from airport | -- |
| Airport Elevation | 791 |
| Weather Briefing Completeness | Unknown |
| Investigator's weather source | Weather Observation Facility |
| Time of the weather observation | 1851 Eastern Daylight Time |
| Direction of event from weather observation facility (degrees) | 29 |
| Weather Observation Facility ID | EWR |
| Elevation of weather observation facility | 18 |
| Distance of event from weather observation facility (units?) | 161 |
| Time Zone of the weather observation | EDT |
| Lighting Conditions | Day |
| Lowest Ceiling Height | 25000 |
| Lowest Non-Ceiling Height | 15000 |
| Sky/Lowest/Cloud Conditions | Scattered |
| Sky Condition for Lowest Ceiling | Broken |
| Visibility Runway Visual Range (Feet) | 0 |
| Visibility Runway Visual Value (Statute Miles) | 0 |
| Visibility (Statute Miles) | 7 |
| Air Temperature at event time (in degrees celsius) | 27 |
| Dew Point at event time (in degress fahrenheit) | 21 |
| Wind Direction (degrees magnetic) | 230 |
| Variable Wind Indicator | Unknown |
| Wind Speed (knots) | 13 |
| Wind Velocity Indicator | Unknown |
| Wind Gust Indicator | Not Gusting |
| Wind Gust (knots) | 0 |
| Altimeter Setting at event time (in. Hg) | 29 |
| Density Altitude (feet) | 2791 |
| Intensity of Precipitation | Unknown |
| METAR weather report | -- |
| Event Highest Injury | Minor |
| On Ground, Fatal Injuries | 0 |
| On Ground, Minor Injuries | 0 |
| On Ground, Serious Injuries | 0 |
| Injury Total Fatal | -- |
| Injury Total Minor | 1 |
| Injury Total None | 2 |
| Injury Total Serious | -- |
| Injury Total All | 1 |
| Investigating Agency | NTSB |
| NTSB Docket Number (internal use) | 648 |
| NTSB Notification Source | -- |
| NTSB Notification Date | Jun 1 1999 12:00AM |
| NTSB Notification Time | 1200 |
| Fiche Number and/or location -used to find docket information | IMAGE |
| Date of most recent change to record | Jan 10 2001 10:15AM |
| User who most recently changed record | dbo |
| Basic weather conditions | Visual Meteorological Cond |
| FAA District Office | -- |
Aircraft Involved |
|
|---|---|
Aircraft #1 |
|
| Aircraft Registration Number | N1223F |
| NTSB Number | NYC99LA131 |
| Missing Aircraft Indicator | N |
| Federal Aviation Reg. Part | Part 91: General Aviation |
| Type of Flight Plan filed | None |
| Flight plan Was Activated? | -- |
| Damage | Substantial |
| Aircraft Fire | None |
| Aircraft Explosion | None |
| Aircraft Manufacturer's Full Name | Cessna |
| Aircraft Model | 172 |
| Aircraft Series Identifier | 172 |
| Aircraft Serial Number | 17272976 |
| Certified Max Gross Weight | 2300 |
| Aircraft Category | Airplane |
| Aircraft Registration Class | U.S. Registered/U.S. Soil |
| Aircraft is a homebuilt? | No |
| Flight Crew Seats | -- |
| Cabin Crew Seats | -- |
| Passenger Seats | -- |
| Total number of seats on the aircraft | 4 |
| Number of Engines | 1 |
| Fixed gear or retractable gear | Fixed |
| Aircraft, Type of Last Inspection | 100 Hour |
| Date of Last Inspection | May 19 1999 12:00AM |
| Airframe hours since last inspection | 15 |
| Airframe Hours | 8889 |
| ELT Installed | Yes |
| ELT Activated | No |
| ELT Aided Location of Event Site | Unknown |
| ELT Type | -- |
| Aircraft Owner Name | VEC CORPORATION OF DELAWARE |
| Aircraft Owner Street Address | 150 FRED WEHRAN DRIVE |
| Aircraft Owner City | HACKENSACK |
| Aircraft Owner State | NJ |
| Aircraft Owner Country | |
| Aircraft Owner Zipcode | 07601 |
| Operator is an individual? | -- |
| Operator Name | |
| Operator Same as Owner? | Yes |
| Operator Is Doing Business As | -- |
| Operator Address Same as Owner? | Yes |
| Operator Street Address | |
| Operator City | |
| Operator State | |
| Operator Country | |
| Operator Zip code | |
| Operator Code | |
| Owner has at least one certificate | None |
| Other Operator of large aircraft? | No |
| Certified for Part 133 or 137 Operation | Unknown |
| Operator Certificate Number | -- |
| Indicates whether an air carrier operation was scheduled or not | -- |
| Indicates Domestic or International Flight | -- |
| Operator carrying Pax/Cargo/Mail | -- |
| Type of Flying (Per_Bus / Primary) | Instructional |
| Second Pilot on Board | No |
| Departure Point Same as Event | No |
| Departure Airport Code | TEB |
| Departure City | TETERBORO |
| Departure State | NJ |
| Departure Country | |
| Departure Time | 1730 |
| Departure Time Zone | EDT |
| Destination Same as Local Flt | -- |
| Destination Airport Code | 4N1 |
| Destination City | WEST MILFORD |
| Destination State | NJ |
| Destination Country | |
| Specific Phase of Flight | -- |
| Report sent to ICAO? | -- |
| Evacuation occurred | -- |
| Date of most recent change to record | Jan 10 2001 12:27PM |
| User who most recently changed record | dbo |
| Since inspection or accident | -- |
| Event Location Runway Number and Location | 24 |
| Runway Length | 4000 |
| Runway Width | 60 |
| Sight Seeing flight | No |
| Air Medical Flight | No |
| Medical Flight | -- |