CHI92LA248 · Piper PA-38-112
Piper PA-38-112 · Accident: on ground/water collision with object during takeoff
From CAP · Springfield, IL to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI92LA248
- 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-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
- N2353L
- Operator
- Orval Yarger
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From CAP · Springfield, ILTo 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
- Takeoff · roll/run
- 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
- On ground/water collision with object
- 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
- Designated examiner › Remedial action, delayed
- Pilot in command › Directional control, not maintained
- Pilot in command › Lift-off, premature
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE ACCIDENT AIRPLANE COLLIDED WITH HIGH VEGETATION AND TERRAIN AFTER A PREMATURE LIFTOFF DURING A TAKEOFF GROUND RUN. A DESIGNATED PILOT EXAMINER (DPE) WAS ADMINISTERING A PRIVATE PILOT FLIGHT TEST TO A PRIVATE PILOT CANDIDATE. HE REQUESTED THE STUDENT PILOT DEMONSTRATE A SHORT FIELD TAKEOFF. ACCORDING TO THE DPE, AS THE AIRPLANE PROCEEDED DOWN THE RUNWAY IT BECAME APPARENT THAT THE AIRPLANE WAS BEHIND THE POWER CURVE. HE WAS ABOUT TO PULL THE POWER WHEN THE AIRPLANE BECAME AIRBORNE AND MADE A TURN TO THE LEFT. THE LEFT WING HIT CORN AT THE SIDE OF THE RUNWAY, PULLING THE AIRPLANE INTO THE CORN. THE STUDENT PILOT SAID HE PULLED THE NOSE UP AS SOON AS POSSIBLE AND USED SIDE TO SIDE VISION TO STEER THE AIRPLANE. HE SAID THE RIDE SEEMED SLOW AND ROUGH. THE AIRPLANE BECAME AIRBORNE MOMENTARILY TWICE. WHEN HE SPOTTED THE CORN HE TRIED TO PULL UP. THE AIRPLANE LIFTED BUT SETTLED BACK DOWN AT THE EDGE OF THE CORN.
Probable cause
A PREMATURE LIFTOFF AND FAILURE TO MAINTAIN DIRECTIONAL CONTROL DURING A TAKEOFF GROUND RUN BY THE PILOT IN COMMAND. A DELAY IN TAKING REMEDIAL ACTION BY THE DESIGNATED PILOT EXAMINER IS AN ADDITIONAL CAUSE.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI92LA248
- Event ID
- 20001211X15370
- Case number
- CHI92LA248
- 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: b46df89e86c36f1d272c4e4d533c8c342f5e4ed8d68fc251be96ecffe097ed42; retrieved 2026-09-23T02:44:08.096Z.