NYC94FA028 · Piper PA-31T
Piper PA-31T · Accident: loss of control in flight en route
From Easton Airport / Newnam Field (ESN) to Des Moines International Airport (DSM)
Event
- NTSB case
- NYC94FA028
- 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-31T
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-31
- 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
- N515WB
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Easton Airport / Newnam Field (ESN), Easton, MDTo Des Moines International Airport (DSM), Des Moines, IA
- 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 · 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
- 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
- Design stress limits of aircraft › Exceeded
- Pilot in command › Aircraft control, not maintained
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
EN ROUTE AT FL 240, THE PLANE ENTERED A LEFT SPIRALING DESCENT & SUBSEQUENTLY EXPERIENCED AN INFLIGHT BREAK-UP AT 7000' WITH SEPARATION OF OUTBOARD WINGS, TAIL SECTIONS & INTERNAL VINYL FROM THE NOSE BAGGAGE DOOR. THERE WAS NO DISTRESS CALL. WITNESSES HEARD THE ENGINES & AN EXPLOSIVE SOUND, THEN THEY SAW THE PLANE IN A SPIN, TRAILED BY FALLING DEBRIS. DEBRIS WAS STREWN OVER A DISTANCE OF ABOUT 3.5 MI. LIGHT WEIGHT PIECES INCLUDING VINYL FROM THE BAGGAGE DOOR, WING SKIN, & TAIL SKIN PIECES WERE AMONG THE 1ST DEBRIS ON THE WRECKAGE PATH. TAIL SECTIONS WERE FOUND ABOUT 2.5 MI FROM THE MAIN WRECKAGE WITH EVIDENCE OF OVERLOAD FAILURE; PIECES OF THE WINGS WERE FOUND WITH EVIDENCE OF DOWNWARD/OVERLOAD SEP- ARATION. NO PREEXISTING AIRFRAME FAILURE WAS FOUND THAT WOULD HAVE LED TO LOSS OF CONTROL, INFLIGHT BREAKUP, LOSS OF PRESSURIZATION OR HYPOXIA. THE PLANE WAS INACTIVE FOR ABOUT 2 YRS BEFORE BEING PURCHASED 2 MONTHS BEFORE ACCIDENT. LAST ANNUAL INSPECTION WAS ON 6/8/92. ICING WAS FORECAST FROM 9000' TO 17,000'MSL; TURBULENCE WAS FORECAST BELOW 8000' MSL.
Probable cause
THE PILOT'S LOSS OF AIRCRAFT CONTROL FOR AN UNKNOWN REASON, AND SUBSEQUENT FLIGHT THAT EXCEEDED THE DESIGN STRESS LIMITS OF THE AIRPLANE, WHICH RESULTED IN AN IN-FLIGHT AIRFRAME BREAKUP.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record NYC94FA028
- Event ID
- 20001211X13900
- Case number
- NYC94FA028
- 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: a2417d5eaf1fe11122a84cafdef15cc383ff21eee78808d3d9beff2c9865c435; retrieved 2026-09-21T00:17:57.463Z.