BFO92LA030 · Piper PA-28R-201T PA-28R-201
Piper PA-28R-201T PA-28R-201 · Accident: loss of control on ground/water during landing
From Northampton Airport (7B2) to Bangor International Airport (BGR)
Event
- NTSB case
- BFO92LA030
- 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
- 0 · 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-28R-201T PA-28R-201
- 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
- N3768M
- Operator
- James A. Chalfin · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Northampton Airport (7B2), Northampton, MATo Bangor International Airport (BGR), Bangor, ME
- 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
- Landing · landing roll
- 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 on ground/water
- 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
- Terrain condition › High obstruction(s)
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Brewer, ME, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
THE PILOT WAS ON A PERSONAL CROSS-COUNTRY FLIGHT. AS HE NEARED HIS DESTINATION, HE WAS INSTRUCTED BY APPROACH CONTROL TO DELAY HIS VFR APPROACH DUE TO LANDING TRAFFIC AHEAD OF HIM. AS HE CIRCLED, HE SPOTTED A SMALL GRASS LANDING FIELD. HE REQUESTED AND RECEIVED CLEARANCE TO LAND THERE INSTEAD. AS HE TOUCHED DOWN, HE REALIZED THERE WERE ICE PATCHES ON THE RUNWAY AND ELECTED TO GO AROUND. THE PILOT RAISED THE FLAPS TO THE FULL UP POSITION AND APPLIED TAKE-OFF POWER. SHORTLY PAST THE DEPARTURE END OF THE RUNWAY, THE AIRPLANE STRUCK A TREE AND FELL TO THE GROUND. AFTER SLIDING ALONG THE GROUND, THE AIRPLANE STRUCK A GARAGE AND PARKED CAR.
Probable cause
THE PILOT'S DECISION TO LAND ON AN ICY RUNWAY AND THEN ATTEMPT TO TAKE OFF. CONTRIBUTING TO THE ACCIDENT WAS THE PILOT'S DECISION TO COMPLETELY RAISE THE FLAPS AFTER THE BALKED LANDING.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record BFO92LA030
- Event ID
- 20001211X14237
- Case number
- BFO92LA030
- 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: aeaabdfb7ec5e8678bf4e946b7a32928cb4168809776569938ca9c892f1ecd87; retrieved 2026-09-21T15:05:46.896Z.