LAX92LA193 · Piper PA-18A
Piper PA-18A · Accident: dragged wing, rotor, pod, float or tail/skid during takeoff
From an unrecorded airport to Polacca Airport (P10)
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX92LA193
- 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-18A
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-18
- 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
- N1360C
- Operator
- Phillip E. Barnes · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo Polacca Airport (P10), Chandler, AZ
- 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
- Takeoff
- 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
- Dragged wing, rotor, pod, float or tail/skid
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Substantial
Cause areas
- Pilot in command › Compensation for wind conditions, inadequate
- Pilot in command › Unsuitable terrain or takeoff/landing/taxi area, selected
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Coolidge, AZ, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
WITNESSES REPORTED THAT THE PILOT HAD LANDED THE AIRCRAFT ON A DIRT ROAD NEAR A FARM MACHINERY CONCERN. AFTER CONDUCTING HIS BUSINESS, THE PILOT INITIATED A TAKEOFF EASTBOUND ON THE DIRT ROAD, WHICH HAD ABOUT 2,000 FT OF USABLE DISTANCE. ONCE AIRBORNE, THE AIRCRAFT WAS TOO LOW TO CLEAR THE POWER LINES AT THE END OF THE ROAD. THE WITNESSES SAW THE AIRCRAFT BEGIN A LEFT TURN TO AVOID THE POWER LINES AND THE LEFT WING TIP CONTACTED THE GROUND. THE AIRCRAFT CART WHEELED TO A STOP IN AN ADJACENT COTTON FIELD. THE WITNESSES SAID THAT 'HEAVY' AND 'GUSTING' WINDS FROM VARIABLE DIRECTIONS WERE PRESENT DURING THE ATTEMPTED TAKEOFF. AN FAA INSPECTOR EXAMINED THE AIRCRAFT AND FOUND NO EVIDENCE OF A PRE IMPACT MECHANICAL MALFUNCTION OR FAILURE. THE LAST MEDICAL CERTIFICATE OF RECORD FOR THE PILOT WAS A SECOND CLASS MEDICAL ISSUED APRIL 23, 1979.
Probable cause
THE PILOT'S USE OF UNSUITABLE TERRAIN AND INADEQUATE COMPENSATION FOR THE EXISTING WIND CONDITIONS.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX92LA193
- Event ID
- 20001211X14467
- Case number
- LAX92LA193
- 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: f5c54f2c7dd0b7c5012f8563071f6a76bdbfe20800df2db587e948e3399c7ae8; retrieved 2026-09-21T15:01:58.893Z.