- Date
- September 4, 2024, 17:00 local (21:00 UTC)
- Place
- New York, NY · East River, NY
- Injuries
- 3 uninjured
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Phase of flight
- Takeoff
- Aircraft
- N143CATextron 208B
- Defining event
- Takeoff: Collision with terr/obj (non-CFIT)
- Weather
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Status
- Completed
- Report
- Approved by Office Director
- Investigation class
- Class 4 - Basic report with no Prelim publish
- NTSB office
- Eastern Region Aviation
- Parties
- FAA/FSDO
- FAA report
- 20240904013479A
- Case key
- 195077
From the NTSB’s public API. By law, NTSB reports can’t be used as evidence in lawsuits over the accident.
On this page
Probable cause
The pilot’s improper decision to rush his departure, which resulted in a rough water encounter and collision with the wake of a passing ferry boat.
Findings · 1
NTSB’s coded findings. Those marked are part of the probable cause; the rest are factors or other findings. Under each, the cases with the same finding.
Sequence of events
The events NTSB coded, in order, by phase of flight. The defining event is the one that best describes the accident. Under each, the cases with the same event anywhere in their sequence.
Analysis
The pilot explained that there was nothing wrong with the amphibious airplane as he completed his seven previous flights that day and began his eighth takeoff from a river. During the takeoff, the airplane “struck a very strong wake and felt the wing might have hit the wake” but he continued the takeoff. Once in flight, the pilot saw damage beneath the left wing and diverted to the airplane’s base at a nearby airport. A post-landing inspection revealed that the left wing sustained substantial damage. The “dockhand” said the pilot rushed him to his place in the right front seat in an effort to outrace the wake of a 600-passenger, high-speed ferry crossing their takeoff path. He took his seat and buckled his seat belt when the airplane was “already on the move,” and during the takeoff run, the airplane was “rocked around by the choppy water in the river and hit the wake of the [ferry].” The dockhand said he’d flown in the right seat with several different pilots from the same river location, and that “every one of them would wait for the wake to diminish before trying to launch.”
Aircraft
- Registration
- N143CA
- Reported as
- Textron 208B
- Category
- Airplane
- Serial number
- 208B5516
- Built
- 2019
- Airframe hours
- 902.5
- Engine
- P&W Canada PT6A-140, 867 horsepower, turbo prop
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Flight
- Personal · Part 91
- Airworthiness certificate
- Standard, Normal
- Last inspection
- Annual · April 4, 2024 · 148 hours before
- Destination
- JPX · East Hampton, NY
- Airport
- 6N7 · New York Skyports Inc, runway N/S, 10,000 × 1,000 ft, water
- Equipment
- Electronic primary flight display, ADS-B, Auto-pilot, Electronic flight bag or handheld device, Electronic multifunction display
Matched to the registry by N-number and the event date; the registry’s history has gaps, so older matches can be wrong. Compare the reported make and model.
Flight crew
As NTSB recorded them. NTSB leaves out names.
- Role
- Pilot
- Age
- 59
- Injuries
- None
- Certificate
- Airline transport
- Airplane ratings
- Multi-engine land, Single-engine sea, Single-engine land
- Instrument ratings
- Airplane
- Medical
- Class 1, With waivers/limitations
- Last flight review
- December 10, 2023
- Seat
- Left
- Restraint
- 5-point
- Flight hours
- 10,000 total · 8,500 in this make and model
Weather
- Conditions
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Visibility
- 10 statute miles
- Lowest ceiling
- None
- Temperature
- 79 °F, dew point 45 °F
- Altimeter
- 30.43 inHg
- Observed at
- JRB, 3 nm away
- METAR
- KJRB 042056Z AUTO VRB06KT 10SM CLR 26/07 A3043 RMK AO2 PK WND 29033/2046 SLP304 6//// T02560072 58008 PNO $
Docket · 4
The files NTSB released with the investigation on March 20, 2025, on NTSB’s docket system: statements, records, photos and specialists’ reports. 5.1 MB in all.
FAA reports on this event · 1
The FAA’s own accident and incident reports, matched to the aircraft by N-number and date.
Other investigations on N143CA · 1
Matched to the same aircraft by N-number and date.