ATL93FA162 · Piper PA-24-250
Piper PA-24-250 · Accident: loss of control in flight during initial climb
From Boone, NC to James M. Cox Dayton International Airport (DAY)
Event
- NTSB case
- ATL93FA162
- 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
- 4 · 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-24-250
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-24
- 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
- N5586P
- Operator
- Coon, Gerald L. · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Boone, NCTo James M. Cox Dayton International Airport (DAY), Dayton, OH
- 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
- Destroyed
Cause areas
- Pilot in command › Aircraft weight and balance, exceeded
- Pilot in command › Gear retraction, not performed
- Pilot in command › Preflight planning/preparation, improper
- Pilot in command › Stall, inadvertent
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE DENSITY ALTITUDE AT THE BOONE AIRPORT AT THE TIME OF THE ACCIDENT WAS 5154 FEET MSL. THE AIRCRAFT GROSS WEIGHT AT THE TIME OF THE DEPARTURE WAS 3012.3 POUNDS. THE MAXIMUM GROSS WEIGHT LISTED IN THE PILOT'S HANDBOOK IS 2900 POUNDS. WITNESSES STATED THAT THE AIRCRAFT NEVER CLIMBED MORE THAN 200 FEET ABOVE GROUND LEVEL PRIOR TO THE ACCIDENT. THE WITNESSES STATED THAT AT A POINT ABOUT 1/2 MILE FROM THE DEPARTURE END OF THE RUNWAY THE AIRCRAFT WAS IN A NOSE HIGH ATTITUDE, THE WINGS WERE ROCKING FROM SIDE TO SIDE, AND THE LANDING GEAR WAS STILL IN THE EXTENDED POSITION. THE WITNESSES STATED THAT THE AIRCRAFT'S ALTITUDE WAS BELOW THE TOPS OF THE RIDGE LINE AHEAD, AND THAT JUST PRIOR TO THE RIDGE, THE AIRCRAFT NOSE PITCHED UP TO NEAR VERTICAL, THE AIRCRAFT BANKED SHARPLY TO THE RIGHT, THE NOSE DROPPED, AND IMPACTED THE TERRAIN IN A NEAR VERTICAL NOSE DOWN ATTITUDE. THE LANDING GEAR WAS FOUND TO BE IN THE DOWN AND LOCKED POSITION.
Probable cause
The pilot's improper preflight planning, his failure to retract the landing gear after departure, and his failure to maintain control of the aircraft. Factors in the accident were the high density altitude, and the mountainous terrain.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ATL93FA162
- Event ID
- 20001211X13304
- Case number
- ATL93FA162
- Dataset
- historical-pre2008
- Source SHA-256
- 89e2df6d848e7ab3b42e7d7c7a03ff403303057a26ca04c95b3ea67201c3ce74
Source notes (5)
- 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: 86723f836a824f159d01601316836b13630cade61d2b3a868fe6cce26d656e89; retrieved 2026-09-21T00:22:34.592Z.
- Corrected after a review of the NTSB narrative, which states these values explicitly: departure. The narrative gives "THE DENSITY ALTITUDE AT THE BOONE AIRPORT AT THE TIME OF THE ACCIDENT" and places the crash after takeoff about "1/2 MILE FROM THE DEPARTURE END OF THE RUNWAY"; the departure was not recorded.