BFO93FA129 · Piper PA-28-180
Airpark Sales and Service Piper PA-28-180 · Accident: in flight collision with object en route
From an unrecorded airport to Hampton Roads Executive Airport (PVG)
Event
- NTSB case
- BFO93FA129
- 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
- 1 · 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
- Instrument Meteorological Cond
Piper PA-28-180
- 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
- N5291L
- Operator
- Airpark Sales and Service
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo Hampton Roads Executive Airport (PVG), HAMPTON ROADS, VA
- 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
- En route · climb to cruise
- 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
- Visual flight rules (VFR) flight into instrument meteorological conditions (IMC); Tree(s)
- 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 › VFR flight into imc, initiated
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PILOT TOOK OFF IN THE EARLY MORNING HOURS INTO MARGINAL VFR AND/OR IMC CONDITIONS. NO WEATHER BRIEFING, FLIGHT PLAN, OR RADIO COMMUNICATIONS WERE RECORDED BY ANY FAA FACILITY. THE AIRPLANE IMPACTED TREES LESS THAN 1 MI FROM THE AIRPORT, AND WAS FOUND 17 DAYS LATER. EXAMINATION OF THE AIRPLANE DID NOT REVEAL ANY PRE=IMPACT MECHANICAL MALFUNCTIONS. THE AIRPLANE WAS FLOWN BY OTHER PILOTS FOR ABOUT 6 HRS TOTAL TIME 1 DAY PRIOR TO THE ACCIDENT WITH NO SIGNIFICANT DISCREPANCIES NOTED. WITNESSES REPORTED THAT THE PILOT HAD AT LEAST 'ONE OR TWO' MIXED ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGES BEFORE 2100. THE MEDICAL EXAMINER PERFORMED A TOXICOLOGICAL ANALYSIS ON A SPECIMEN OF MUSCLE TISSUE TO SCREEN FOR ALCOHOL - THE FINDING WAS NEGATIVE. WITNESS STATEMENTS INDICATE THAT THE PILOT HAD BEEN AWAKE FOR OVER 18 HRS.
Probable cause
THE PILOT INITIATING VFR FLIGHT IN INSTRUMENT METEOROLOGICAL CONDITIONS. FACTORS WHICH CONTRIBUTED TO THE ACCIDENT WERE: THE PILOT'S FAILURE TO OBTAIN A WEATHER BRIEFING, HIS LACK OF SLEEP, AND THE EXISTING WEATHER CONDITIONS.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record BFO93FA129
- Event ID
- 20001211X12783
- Case number
- BFO93FA129
- 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: 6ff93ed800238a1b1179788e7f35527903990edcd5ad8fe1b627fc4fe73d3c1d; retrieved 2026-09-21T00:30:07.543Z.