SEA96LA199 · Piper PA-38-112
Jack'S Aircraft Piper PA-38-112 · Accident: loss of control in flight during initial climb
From an unrecorded airport to Lebanon State Airport (S30)
Event
- NTSB case
- SEA96LA199
- 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-38-112
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-38
- 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
- N2465K
- Operator
- Jack'S Aircraft
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo Lebanon State Airport (S30), Lebanon, OR
- 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
- 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
- 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(cfi) › Airspeed, not obtained/maintained
- Pilot in command(cfi) › Preflight planning/preparation, inadequate
- Pilot in command(cfi) › Stall, inadvertent
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The student pilot reported that he made an uneventful full flap landing at the airstrip for the completion of the first leg of the instructional cross-country flight. Also, he stated that he did not feel comfortable with the takeoff because he was aware that the airplane was heavy and the density altitude was high. During takeoff, the student followed along as the instructor (CFI) operated the controls until rotation. At that point, the CFI had full control of the airplane. The student stated that he noticed the airspeed was decreasing below 70 knots during the climb, and called out the airspeed when it dropped to 55 knots. At about this time, the student lightly pushed forward on the control yoke, but the CFI continued to pull back. The airplane entered a stall, and the nose and right wing dropped. The airplane then collided with hilly terrain about a half mile north of the airstrip. Weight and balance calculations showed the airplane was about 100 lbs over the maximum certificated gross weight. The density altitude was calculated at 5,252 feet. During an examination, the flaps were found fully extended and the elevator trim was in a nearly full nose up position. No evidence of a mechanical failure or malfunction was found during an engine examination.
Probable cause
inadequate preflight planning/preparation by the flight instructor (CFI), and his failure to obtain and/or maintain adequate airspeed, which resulted in an inadvertent stall. Excessive gross weight, high density altitude, and improper use of flaps were related factors.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record SEA96LA199
- Event ID
- 20001208X06635
- Case number
- SEA96LA199
- 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: c4a2f7c53caec5267c9e1350ad7a33324fb781090a32b5d01d9d057e39f2e7a5; retrieved 2026-09-21T12:32:12.086Z.