FTW96LA353 · Piper PA-36-300
Piper PA-36-300 · Accident: loss of control in flight during initial climb
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW96LA353
- 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-36-300
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-36
- 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
- N57831
- 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 137: Agricultural
- 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
- Initial climb
- 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
- 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
- Stall/mush
- 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 › Airspeed, not obtained/maintained
- Pilot in command › Preflight planning/preparation, inadequate
- Pilot in command › Stall/mush, inadvertent
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot stated that during the takeoff roll from his 3,000 foot dirt airstrip, he noticed that the airspeed was slower than normal. After dumping a small amount of wheat seed, the airspeed 'became normal' and the airplane climbed to about 75 feet AGL in a shallow left turn. Approximately one mile north of the strip, the airplane over flew a heavily watered milo field, and it began to descend. The pilot stated that he lowered the nose and again 'dumped wheat seed for approximately 750 feet,' but the airplane continued to descend. The pilot reported that 'the airplane stalled approximately 15 feet above the ground' and subsequently impacted the ground. In preparation for the aerial spreading of wheat seed, the hopper was loaded with seed, and the airplane was serviced with about 40 gallons of fuel. During the investigation, a weight and balance calculation was made using figures provided by the operator. The calculation showed that the airplane was 50 pounds over its maximum gross weight limit of 4,400 pounds. Density altitude was calculated to be 5,700 feet.
Probable cause
the pilot's inadequate preflight planning/preparation and failure to obtain and/or maintain adequate airspeed after takeoff, which resulted in an inadvertent stall/mush. The overweight condition of the airplane and high density altitude were related factors.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW96LA353
- Event ID
- 20001208X06505
- Case number
- FTW96LA353
- 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: 1191e7d1b16805a49f8cee1a913e5abfca88fa3a342bf23a5ff4c07948d0aa46; retrieved 2026-09-22T21:24:21.862Z.