FTW95LA021 · Piper PA-32-260
Piper PA-32-260 · Accident: in flight collision with terrain/water during takeoff
From 4AC to Los Alamos Airport (LAM)
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW95LA021
- 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
- General aviation
- 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-32-260
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-32
- 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
- N3699W
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From 4ACTo Los Alamos Airport (LAM), Los Alamos, NM
- 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
- Takeoff · rejected takeoff
- 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
- In flight collision with terrain/water
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Substantial
Cause areas
- Pilot in command › Compensation for wind conditions, inadequate
- Pilot in command › Flight into known adverse weather, attempted
- Pilot in command › Planning/decision, improper
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE LOCAL WINDS WERE REPORTED FROM THE EAST AT 25 KNOTS GUSTING TO 50 KNOTS. THE PILOT EXTENDED THE FLAPS TO 25 DEGREES (2ND NOTCH) RATHER THAN USING 10 DEGREES (1ST NOTCH). DURING THE TAKEOFF ON RUNWAY 3, THE AIRPLANE BECAME AIRBORNE IN GUSTY WINDS. WITNESSES REPORTED THAT IT LIFTED OFF EARLY IN THE TAKEOFF ROLL. THE AIRPLANE ENCOUNTERED TURBULENCE AND GUSTY WINDS, AND DID NOT CLIMB. THE LANDING GEAR CONTACTED BRUSH AND GRASS ON THE UPWIND SIDE OF THE RUNWAY, AND THE PILOT ABORTED THE ATTEMPTED TAKEOFF. THE PLANE TOUCHED DOWN ON SOFT TERRAIN AND CAME TO REST SEVERAL HUNDRED FEET FROM THE SIDE OF THE RUNWAY WITH THE GEAR COLLAPSED. THE AIRPORT ELEVATION WAS 5280 FEET, AND THE AIR TEMPERATURE WAS ABOUT 52 DEGREES.
Probable cause
IMPROPER PLANNING/DECISION BY THE PILOT, WHILE ATTEMPTING FLIGHT INTO KNOWN ADVERSE WEATHER (WIND), AND HIS INADEQUATE COMPENSATION FOR WIND CONDITIONS. THE GUSTY CROSSWIND CONDITIONS AND TURBULENCE WERE RELATED FACTORS.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW95LA021
- Event ID
- 20001206X02444
- Case number
- FTW95LA021
- 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: ab09c444d637a10ef1af0ae09dfb26c3cf65c6fe705f08f1e71f39a14bc84a79; retrieved 2026-09-23T00:32:31.834Z.