SEA97LA138 · Piper PA-28-140
Piper PA-28-140 · Accident: in flight collision with object during takeoff
From Kennel Airstrip (OR04) to Newport Municipal Airport (ONP)
Event
- NTSB case
- SEA97LA138
- 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-28-140
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-28
- 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
- N1438T
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Kennel Airstrip (OR04)To Newport Municipal Airport (ONP), Newport, 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
- 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 object
- 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
- Wire, transmission
- 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 › Preflight planning/preparation, inadequate
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot landed at an airstrip that was designated as a 'Warning Airport' by the Oregon State Aeronautics Division. The remarks section of the Oregon Airport Directory stated '...landing to south and takeoff to north not recommended.' Also, there were signs at the airport that warn against taking off to the north. After landing, the pilot taxied back to the south end and initiated a takeoff to the north. The wind was reported to be variable and gusting to 20 kts. Reportedly, after liftoff, the aircraft entered an area of shifting/unfavorable winds and was unable to climb fast enough to clear the tall trees off the north end of the runway. Near the departure end of the runway, the pilot turned about 20 degrees to the left to fly over an area where the trees were not as tall as the ones directly off the end of the runway. About 200 ft past the departure end of the runway, the aircraft impacted a power line running to a local residence. In a postaccident interview, the pilot stated that he had not stopped to make pre-takeoff performance calculations or to evaluate the wind conditions from outside the aircraft before attempting the takeoff.
Probable cause
the pilot's inadequate preflight planning/preparation to ensure he could execute a safe departure in the meteorological conditions present at the time. Related factors included: the unfavorable/variable/gusty wind conditions; and a power line near the departure end of the runway.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record SEA97LA138
- Event ID
- 20001208X08254
- Case number
- SEA97LA138
- 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: 2b5ceb62dfcb3941d0e0b2be6f2fb542c0186a7666da99e5030ff1e3f81dfbd7; retrieved 2026-09-21T12:02:33.354Z.