LAX92FA247 · Piper PA-38-112
Desert Southwest Airlines Piper PA-38-112 · Accident: in flight collision with object during initial climb
From Harry Reid International Airport (LAS) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX92FA247
- 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-38-112
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-38
- 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
- N2516D
- Operator
- Desert Southwest Airlines
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Harry Reid International Airport (LAS), Las Vegas, NVTo not recorded
- 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
- Also codedOther events the NTSB coded in the sequence, such as a wire strike after a loss of power. Flight Findings uses them for its kinds of event. Glossary
- Wire, transmission
- 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(cfi) › Proper climb rate, not attained
- Pilot in command(cfi) › Supervision, inadequate
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
A PIPER PA-38-112 COLLIDED WITH AN UNMARKED POWER TRANSMISSION LINE STATIC CABLE DURING THE TAKEOFF CLIMB AFTER EXECUTING A TOUCH AND GO MANEUVER. THE AIRPLANE WAS AT A CONSTANT AIRSPEED AND LOW ALTITUDE ABOVE THE UPSLOPING TERRAIN LOCATED NORTH OF THE AIRPORT. THE AIRPLANE THEN STRUCK THE STATIC CABLE WITH ITS RIGHT WING AS IT ENTERED A RIGHT TURN. THE 20:1 APPROACH CLEAR ZONE PLANE RATIO FOR THE DEPARTURE END OF THE RUNWAY IS OBSTRUCTED BY AN APPROXIMATE FOUR FOOT HIGH DIRT BERM. RISING TERRAIN CONTINUES NORTH OF THE AIRPORT BUT DOES NOT OBSTRUCT THE 20:1 CLEARANCE RATIO. POWER TRANSMISSION LINES CROSS RUNWAY 33'S EXTENDED CENTERLINE ON A NORTHWESTERLY HEADING ABOUT 3,800 FEET FROM THE RUNWAY END. SUPPORT TOWERS FOR THE POWER TRANSMISSION LINE CABLES ARE ABOUT 60 FEET ABOVE GROUND LEVEL, BUT DID NOT EXTEND INTO THE 20:1 CLEARANCE RATIO. THE POWER TRANSMISSION LINES ARE DEPICTED ON THE SECTIONAL AERONAUTICAL CHART. THE AIRPLANE'S FLAPS WERE FOUND TO BE FULLY EXTENDED. THE PIPER INFORMATION MANUAL DOES NOT PRESCRIBE THE USE OF FULL FLAPS FOR ANY TAKEOFF MANEUVERS.
Probable cause
THE INSTRUCTOR PILOT'S INADEQUATE SUPERVISION OF THE STUDENT PILOT TO INSURE THE PROPER FLAP SETTING FOR TAKEOFF WHICH RESULTED IN THE PROPER CLIMB RATE NOT BEING ATTAINED. CONTRIBUTING TO THE ACCIDENT WAS RISING TERRAIN.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX92FA247
- Event ID
- 20001211X14887
- Case number
- LAX92FA247
- 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: f1d5c881f23c711abbd84c5f81bb71d9594858ea5c313981c0926551ae0978c0; retrieved 2026-09-21T01:07:30.942Z.