CHI96FA049 · Piper PA-32R-301T PA-32R-301
Piper PA-32R-301T PA-32R-301 · Accident: in flight encounter with weather en route
From Addison Airport (ADS) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI96FA049
- 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
- 1 · 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-32R-301T PA-32R-301
- 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
- N14BA
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Addison Airport (ADS), Dallas, TXTo 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
- En route · cruise
- 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 encounter with weather
- Also codedOther events the NTSB coded in the sequence, such as a wire strike after a loss of power. Flight Findings uses them for its kinds of event. Glossary
- Visual flight rules (VFR) flight into instrument meteorological conditions (IMC)
- 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 control, not maintained
- Pilot in command › Design stress limits of aircraft, exceeded
- Pilot in command › Impairment(drugs)
- Pilot in command › In-flight planning/decision, improper
- Pilot in command › Spatial disorientation
- Pilot in command › VFR flight into imc, performed
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The noncertificated pilot advised ARTCC that he was flying at 11,500 feet msl. After numerous exchanges regarding the weather, the ARTCC controller asked if the pilot was over an overcast and if he needed clearance down through it. The pilot replied that he was on-top. The pilot was then asked if he had recent training or experience flying IFR. He replied, 'I have not.' The pilot told the controller, 'I have gone down through the clouds...we've never had a problem with it.' The controller advised that it would be illegal to enter the clouds (while flying VFR). A few moments later, the pilot said, '...we've got a broken spot right here. We can dip down through.' After that, there was no further communication with the airplane. Subsequently, an in-flight breakup of the airplane occurred, and wreckage was scattered over a 1,600' area. An exam revealed the stabilator and portions of the left wing had separated due to overload failure. Radar data showed that a number of altitude and heading changes occurred before radar contact was lost (witnesses noted a corresponding variation in engine sound before impact). A toxicology test of the pilot's blood detected a trace of cocaine (less than 0.020 mcg/ml) and showed 0.129 mcg/ml Benzoylecgonine (metabolite of cocaine). A test of his liver fluid showed 0.051 mcg/ml Benzoylecgonine.
Probable cause
the pilot's impairment of judgment and performance due to a drug (cocaine); his improper in-flight decision to continue flight over an overcast condition and then to descend into instrument meteorological conditions (IMC); his failure to maintain control of the airplane, due to spatial disorientation, after entering clouds; and his exceeding the design/stress limits of the airplane. Factors relating to the accident were: the weather conditions, the pilot's lack of instrument experience, and the pilot's overconfidence in his personal ability.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI96FA049
- Event ID
- 20001207X04965
- Case number
- CHI96FA049
- 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: e7dd8f2b347d611bc2862491f2c022de74527247b8c411dd67c4b82cc6ad020b; retrieved 2026-09-20T23:30:02.072Z.