NYC98FA024 · Piper PA-23-150
Piper PA-23-150 · Accident: loss of control in flight on approach
From FIT to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- NYC98FA024
- 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
- 2 · 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-23-150
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-23
- 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
- N3EV
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From FITTo 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
- Approach · VFR go-around
- 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
- 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(cfi) › Airspeed, inadequate
- Pilot in command(cfi) › In-flight planning/decision, improper
- Pilot in command(cfi) › Overconfidence in aircraft's ability
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Fitchburg, MA, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
The flight was the second multi-engine training flight for the pilot trainee. On final approach the left engine was observed feathered and the landing gear was extended. With a clear runway ahead, a single engine go-around was initiated. The airplane was observed in a very shallow climb. Witnesses then saw the airplane descend in a nose down attitude and strike the ground. Investigation revealed the airplane had impacted the ground with the left engine propeller feathered, and the landing gear extended. No evidence of a mechanical failure or malfunction was found with the airplane or feathered engine. A check of certification requirements for the airplane revealed it was not required to perform a single engine go-around. FAA and AOPA publications cautioned against performing single engine go-arounds. The flight instructor had previously performed a single engine go-around in the same airplane, also with the left engine shut down. However, the landing gear was retracted. The student in that flight said the airplane climbed between 50 and 200 FPM.
Probable cause
The flight instructor's inadequate in-flight decision and his failure to maintain adequate airspeed which resulted in a loss of control. Contributing was the flight instructor's failure to follow standard practices while simulating and practicing emergency procedures which resulted in his initiating of a single-engine go around and reduced climb performance.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record NYC98FA024
- Event ID
- 20001208X09095
- Case number
- NYC98FA024
- 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: e229c834cafd47ca9f1c1431a9203fae84e0657c9534b330124a9049e3a81772; retrieved 2026-09-20T22:46:13.500Z.