NYC93LA131 · Piper PA-32
Piper PA-32 · Accident: overrun during takeoff
From Chambers Heliport (MA10) to N88 · Doylestown, PA
Event
- NTSB case
- NYC93LA131
- 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-32
- 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
- N3490W
- Operator
- Thomas Worthington
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Chambers Heliport (MA10)To N88 · Doylestown, PA
- 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 · rejected 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
- Overrun
- 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 › Aborted takeoff, delayed
- Pilot in command › Preflight planning/preparation, inadequate
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Spencer, MA, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
THE PILOT WAS DEPARTING ON A RETURN CROSS COUNTRY FLIGHT WITH THREE PASSENGERS, BAGGAGE AND FULL FUEL. DURING THE TAKEOFF ROLL, JUST BEYOND THE HALF WAY POINT OF THE 1930 FOOT RUNWAY, THE PILOT WAS UNSURE THAT THE AIRPLANE WOULD CLEAR TREES AT THE END OF THE RUNWAY. APPROXIMATELY THREE QUARTERS OF WAY DOWN THE RUNWAY, THE PILOT PULLED OFF THE POWER AND ABORTED THE TAKEOFF. THE AIRPLANE OVERRAN THE DEPARTURE END OF THE RUNWAY AND IMPACTED TREES. THE AIRPORT ELEVATION WAS 1040 FEET ABOVE MEAN SEA LEVEL AND THE OUTSIDE AIR TEMPERATURE WAS APPROXIMATELY 90 DEGREES FAHRENHEIT. ACCORDING TO THE PILOT OPERATING HANDBOOK THE DISTANCE REQUIRED FOR THIS TAKEOFF TO CLEAR A 50 FOOT OBSTACLE WAS APPROXIMATELY 1900 FEET
Probable cause
THE PILOT'S INADEQUATE PREFLIGHT PLANNING FOR THE HIGH DENSITY ALTITUDE DEPARTURE AND THE DELAY IN ABORTING THE TAKEOFF ROLL, WITH INSUFFICIENT RUNWAY REMAINING, RESULTING IN A COLLISION WITH TREES
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record NYC93LA131
- Event ID
- 20001211X12711
- Case number
- NYC93LA131
- 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: 37a265b98d2ea76cd207c4c0a0694d5e0f47d10b057f57a4301bdab27d9aaa2b; retrieved 2026-09-21T22:54:04.217Z.