CHI94LA271 · Piper PA-34-200
Piper PA-34-200 · Accident: loss of control on ground/water during takeoff
Narrative check · The NTSB narrative appears to contradict this record's aircraft involved. Values are shown as recorded, not corrected; compare with the narrative.
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI94LA271
- 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
- 0 · 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
- Charter & commuter
- WeatherVisual meteorological conditions (VMC): good enough to fly by looking outside. Instrument conditions (IMC): cloud or low visibility, flying by instruments. Glossary
- Visual Meteorological Cond
Piper PA-34-200 Possible conflict
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-34
- 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
- N234KB
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo 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 135: Air Taxi & Commuter
- 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
- Takeoff · roll/run
- 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 on ground/water
- 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 › Aircraft preflight, inadequate
- Pilot in command › Ice/frost removal from aircraft, not performed
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PILOT POSITIONED THE AIRPLANE ON THE RUNWAY IN PREPARATION FOR TAKEOFF. THE PILOT STATED HE LINED THE AIRPLANE ON THE RIGHT SIDE OF THE RUNWAY TO DEPART ON THE GRASS IN ORDER TO AVOID AN AREA OF LOOSE GRAVEL WHICH WAS LOCATED AT THE NORTH END OF THE RUNWAY. ACCORDING TO STATEMENTS FROM SEVERAL OF THE PASSENGERS ABOARD THE AIRPLANE, THE WINDSHIELD OF THE AIRPLANE WAS COMPLETELY OBSCURED WITH FROST DURING TAXI AND ON THE TAKEOFF ROLL. AFTER APPLYING FULL POWER FOR TAKEOFF THE AIRPLANE VEERED TO THE LEFT. THE PILOT THEN APPLIED RIGHT RUDDER AND SCANNED THE INSTRUMENTS. THE AIRPLANE'S LEFT WING IMPACTED AN AIRPLANE WHICH WAS PARKED ALONG SIDE OF THE RUNWAY. A SECOND AND THIRD IMPACT OCCURRED WITH TWO OTHER PARKED AIRPLANES BEFORE THE AIRPLANE CAME TO REST.
Probable cause
THE PILOT'S INADEQUATE AIRCRAFT PRELIGHT AND HIS FAILURE TO REMOVE THE FROST FROM THE WINDSHIELD WHICH OBSTRUCTED HIS VIEW.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI94LA271
- Event ID
- 20001206X01996
- Case number
- CHI94LA271
- 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: 783d905d74a9af5482d443be726d90d47b155af224d02a154b01775cce8e9685; retrieved 2026-09-18T18:10:34.231Z.