CHI92FA066 · Piper PA-31P
Becher Hoppe Engineers Piper PA-31P · Accident: airframe, component or system failure while maneuvering
From Minneapolis–Saint Paul International Airport / Wold–Chamberlain Field (MSP) to Central Wisconsin Airport (CWA)
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI92FA066
- 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-31P
- 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
- N500BH
- Operator
- Becher Hoppe Engineers
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Minneapolis–Saint Paul International Airport / Wold–Chamberlain Field (MSP), Minneapolis, MNTo Central Wisconsin Airport (CWA), Mosinee, WI
- 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
- Maneuvering
- 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
- Airframe, component or system failure
- 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
- Air cond/heating/pressurization › Fire
- Terrain condition › None suitable
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
PILOT WAS CLEARED FOR AN ILS APPROACH AT HIS DESTINATION, AND REQUESTED TO REPORT ALTITUDE OF 3,000 FEET ON THE APPROACH. THIS WAS THE LAST RADIO TRANSMISSION RECEIVED FROM THE PILOT. AIRCRAFT WAS FOUND IN SOFT FIELD SIX MILES FROM THE AIRPORT. LANDING GEAR WAS UP, FLAPS WERE DOWN. FISHERMAN NEARBY REPORTED HEARING THE AIRCRAFT MANEUVERING AT LOW ALTITUDE. HE REPORTED THAT THE ENGINES SOUNDED FINE, BUT THE SOUND WAS CHANGING IN PITCH AND INTENSITY. HE REPORTED THAT GOT QUIET JUST A FEW SECONDS BEFORE HE HEARD THE IMPACT. THE INVESTIGATION REVEALED THAT THERE WAS EVIDENCE OF A FIRE IN THE NOSE BAGGAGE COMPARTMENT. THE CABIN HEATER IS LOCATED IN THE NOSE BAGGAGE COMPARTMENT, AND HAD A RECENT HISTORY OF DISCREPANCIES.
Probable cause
AN INFLIGHT FIRE WITH THE CABIN HEATER AS THE ORIGIN, AND UNSUITABLE TERRAIN IN WHICH TO MAKE A FORCED LANDING. A FACTOR RELATED TO THE ACCIDENT WAS THE SOFT TERRAIN.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI92FA066
- Event ID
- 20001211X13955
- Case number
- CHI92FA066
- 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: 2a5d74eb95a5b3af8e217b383cca45f0bb359216719ee946ad2ce48b420f08c9; retrieved 2026-09-21T01:25:47.863Z.