diff --git a/lib/internal/streams/pipeline.js b/lib/internal/streams/pipeline.js
index ed5556e5d0a600..92a91c30171af1 100644
--- a/lib/internal/streams/pipeline.js
+++ b/lib/internal/streams/pipeline.js
@@ -17,7 +17,7 @@ const {
 } = require('internal/errors').codes;
 
 function isRequest(stream) {
-  return stream.setHeader && typeof stream.abort === 'function';
+  return stream && stream.setHeader && typeof stream.abort === 'function';
 }
 
 function destroyer(stream, reading, writing, callback) {
@@ -43,22 +43,13 @@ function destroyer(stream, reading, writing, callback) {
 
     // request.destroy just do .end - .abort is what we want
     if (isRequest(stream)) return stream.abort();
-    if (typeof stream.destroy === 'function') {
-      if (stream.req && stream._writableState === undefined) {
-        // This is a ClientRequest
-        // TODO(mcollina): backward compatible fix to avoid crashing.
-        // Possibly remove in a later semver-major change.
-        stream.req.on('error', noop);
-      }
-      return stream.destroy(err);
-    }
+    if (isRequest(stream.req)) return stream.req.abort();
+    if (typeof stream.destroy === 'function') return stream.destroy(err);
 
     callback(err || new ERR_STREAM_DESTROYED('pipe'));
   };
 }
 
-function noop() {}
-
 function pipe(from, to) {
   return from.pipe(to);
 }
diff --git a/test/parallel/test-stream-pipeline.js b/test/parallel/test-stream-pipeline.js
index 4a41f053bd0a85..76a6171bb1bd5a 100644
--- a/test/parallel/test-stream-pipeline.js
+++ b/test/parallel/test-stream-pipeline.js
@@ -1,7 +1,14 @@
 'use strict';
 
 const common = require('../common');
-const { Stream, Writable, Readable, Transform, pipeline } = require('stream');
+const {
+  Stream,
+  Writable,
+  Readable,
+  Transform,
+  pipeline,
+  PassThrough
+} = require('stream');
 const assert = require('assert');
 const http = require('http');
 const { promisify } = require('util');
@@ -483,3 +490,30 @@ const { promisify } = require('util');
     { code: 'ERR_INVALID_CALLBACK' }
   );
 }
+
+{
+  const server = http.Server(function(req, res) {
+    res.write('asd');
+  });
+  server.listen(0, function() {
+    http.request({
+      port: this.address().port,
+      path: '/',
+      method: 'GET'
+    }, (res) => {
+      const stream = new PassThrough();
+
+      stream.on('error', common.mustCall());
+
+      pipeline(
+        res,
+        stream,
+        common.mustCall((err) => {
+          server.close();
+        })
+      );
+
+      stream.destroy(new Error('oh no'));
+    }).end().on('error', common.mustNotCall());
+  });
+}