CHI94FA018 · Piper PA-32R-300
First Nat'L Bank of Valentine Piper PA-32R-300 · Accident: in flight collision with object during initial climb
From an unrecorded airport to Lincoln Airport (LNK)
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI94FA018
- 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
- 5 · 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-32R-300
- 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
- N4147Q
- Operator
- First Nat'L Bank of Valentine
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo Lincoln Airport (LNK), Lincoln, NE
- 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
- In flight collision with object
- 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 › Clearance, not maintained
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE INSTRUMENT RATED COMMERCIAL PILOT WAS RETAINED TO FLY THE AIRPLANE TO ATKINSON, NEBRASKA, WAIT WHILE THE PASSENGERS ATTENDED A HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL GAME, THEN TRANSPORT THE PASSENGERS TO LINCOLN, NEBRASKA. WITNESSES STATED THE WEATHER HAD BEEN CLEAR WITH GOOD VISIBILITY EARLY IN THE EVENING, BUT ABOUT THE TIME THE FOOTBALL GAME ENDED, THE FOG BEGAN TO MOVE IN. WITNESSES STATED THE AIRPLANE DEPARTED WITHOUT AN IFR CLEARANCE, AND ENCOUNTERED DENSE FOG AFTER LIFTOFF. ONE WITNESS REPORTED THE AIRPLANE DID NOT CLIMB AFTER IT TOOK OFF. THE AIRPLANE STRUCK A TRUCK, STOCK TRAILER AND HOG CONFINEMENT BARN LOCATED ABOUT 3/8 MILE WEST OF THE DEPARTURE END OF THE RUNWAY. POSTACCIDENT EXAMINATION REVEALED NO EVIDENCE OF PREIMPACT MECHANICAL MALFUNCTION. THE PILOT RECEIVED THREE WEATHER BRIEFINGS AND WAS ADVISED OF FLIGHT PRECAUTIONS FOR LOW CEILINGS AND VISIBILITIES.
Probable cause
the instrument rated commercial pilot's failure to maintain adequate clearance from terrain/obstructions during the initial climb after takeoff. Related factors are the weather conditions (fog) and the pilot's failure to maintain the proper rate of climb.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI94FA018
- Event ID
- 20001211X13526
- Case number
- CHI94FA018
- 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: local date, investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 1993-10-16.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 94245b134ead664c1bc234cdcecd0bc5562ff86f948e62ce57960dfd50929a24; retrieved 2026-09-21T00:20:51.214Z.