CHI94FA128 · Piper PA-23-250
Piper PA-23-250 · Accident: loss of control in flight on approach
From Mitchell Municipal Airport (MHE) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI94FA128
- Event typeAccident: someone killed or seriously injured, or the aircraft substantially damaged (NTSB definition). Incident: an occurrence that affected or could have affected safety, short of that. Glossary
- Accident
- InvestigationHow far the investigation had got when the record was published: preliminary, ongoing, final or completed. Unknown where the source does not say. Glossary
- Completed
- API-reported fatalities
- 2 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- 0
- OperationWhat kind of flying it was, grouped by the rules it flew under: airline (US Part 121), air taxi and commuter (Part 135), general aviation (Part 91 and similar), military or government. Glossary
- General aviation
- WeatherVisual meteorological conditions (VMC): good enough to fly by looking outside. Instrument conditions (IMC): cloud or low visibility, flying by instruments. Glossary
- Instrument Meteorological Cond
Piper PA-23-250
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-23
- Category
- Airplane
- RegistrationThe aircraft's tail number, such as N12345 or G-ABCD. Registrations are reissued, so the same one years apart can be a different aircraft. Glossary
- N5399Y
- Operator
- James W. Furman · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Mitchell Municipal Airport (MHE), Mitchell, SDTo not recorded
- Aircraft age
- Not recorded
- Flight rulesThe regulations the flight operated under: in the US, Part 91 (general aviation), Part 121 (airlines), Part 135 (air taxi and commuter) and others; for flights abroad, the NTSB's coarser commercial or non-commercial code. Glossary
- Part 91: General Aviation
- Phase of flightThe stage of the flight when things started to go wrong: standing, taxi, takeoff, initial climb, en route, maneuvering, approach or landing. Glossary
- Approach · IFR missed approach
- First occurrenceThe single coded event the NTSB judges best describes what happened (records from 2008 on). Older records name the first occurrence in the sequence instead. Glossary
- Loss of control in flight
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Destroyed
Cause areas
- Pilot in command › Spatial disorientation
- Spiral › Inadvertent
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE INSTRUMENT RATED PRIVATE PILOT WAS ON THE RETURN LEG OF HIS FIRST ACTUAL IFR FLIGHT, 3 DAYS AFTER COMPLETING HIS INSTRUMENT-AIRPLANE CHECKRIDE. HE HAD ACCUMULATED 2 HOURS OF ACTUAL IFR FLIGHT TIME PRIOR TO THIS FLIGHT. THE EXAMINER, WHO HAD FAILED HIM ON HIS INITIAL CHECKFLIGHT 2 WEEKS PRIOR TO THE SUCCESSFUL CHECK, STATED THAT THE APPLICANT TENDED TO GET OVERLOADED BY COMMUNICATIONS IN ADDITION TO NAVIGATION AND AIRCRAFT CONTROL. WEATHER AT THE DESTINATION WAS BETWEEN 500-1 AND 400-1/2 IN BLOWING SNOW, WITH WINDS GUSTING TO 30 KNOTS. APPROACH MINIMUMS WERE 500-1. COMMUNICATIONS WITH ARTCC WERE DIFFICULT THROUGHOUT THE FLIGHT. THE RADAR TRACK WAS CIRCUITOUS, DID NOT FOLLOW THE PUBLISHED APPROACH OR MISSED APPROACH, AND DEPICTED A DESCENDING SPIRAL FOR THE FINAL 3 MINUTES OF THE FLIGHT. DURING THESE TURNS, THE PILOT STATED HE WAS PROCEEDING TO HIS ALTERNATE. THE FLAP ACTUATOR WAS FOUND IN THE FULLY EXTENDED POSITION. NO DISCREPANCIES WERE NOTED IN THE FLIGHT INSTRUMENTS, PITOT-STATIC SYSTEM, OR ENGINES.
Probable cause
THE PILOT'S SPATIAL DISORIENTATION AND INADVERTANT ENTRY INTO A SPIRAL DIVE. FACTORS WERE THE PILOT'S LACK OF TOTAL INSTRUMENT EXPERIENCE AND THE WEATHER CONDITIONS OF BLOWING SNOW AND TURBULENCE.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI94FA128
- Event ID
- 20001206X01067
- Case number
- CHI94FA128
- Dataset
- historical-pre2008
- Source SHA-256
- 89e2df6d848e7ab3b42e7d7c7a03ff403303057a26ca04c95b3ea67201c3ce74
Source notes (4)
- Unreviewed is an editorial label, not an investigation status. API-sourced is not report-checked or human-reviewed. Explicit event totals are used without summing aircraft injury tables; onboard allocation is withheld. Unknown values remain unknown. The operation category is mapped from the NTSB-reported FAR part and has not been reviewed.
- Filled from the NTSB case API where the bulk record had no value: investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date, which is the same as the UTC date the NTSB stores.
- API snapshot SHA-256: c20036736a5324b28352c7ce7b024abff78c3a8130032e32ab2cdb47740e2928; retrieved 2026-09-21T00:12:21.824Z.