NYC92FA161 · Piper PA-28R-180
Automated Environments Piper PA-28R-180 · Accident: airframe, component or system failure en route
From Frankfort Clinton County Regional Airport (FKR) to Elmira Corning Regional Airport (ELM)
Narrative check · The NTSB narrative appears to contradict this record's departure or destination. Values are shown as recorded, not corrected; compare with the narrative.
Event
- NTSB case
- NYC92FA161
- 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
- 3 · 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-28R-180
- 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
- N44AE
- Operator
- Automated Environments
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route Possible conflict
- From Frankfort Clinton County Regional Airport (FKR), Frankfort, INTo Elmira Corning Regional Airport (ELM), Elmira, NY
- 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
- En route · descent
- 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
- 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
- Tree(s)
- 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
- Company/operator management › Maintenance, inadequate
- Flight/nav instruments, attitude gyro › Unreliable
- Pilot in command › Aircraft control, not maintained
- Pilot in command › Spatial disorientation
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PILOT AND PASSENGERS WERE RETURNING TO ITHACA, NY., AFTER A BUSINESS TRIP TO INDIANA. THE PILOT HAD DEPARTED UNDER VFR CONDITIONS BUT RECEIVED AN IFR CLEARANCE EN ROUTE DUE TO DETERIORATING WEATHER CONDITIONS NEAR HIS DESTINATION. HE WAS AT 5,000 FEET AND BEING VECTORED TO THE FINAL APPROACH COURSE FOR THE VOR APPROACH TO RWY 14, WHEN HE REPORTED THAT HE 'JUST LOST THE GYROS.' RADIO AND RADAR CONTACT WERE LOST SHORTLY THEREAFTER. THE WRECKAGE WAS FOUND 4 DAYS LATER IN A WOODED AREA. EXAMINATION OF THE ENGINE DRIVEN VACUUM PUMP REVEALED IT WAS CAPABLE OF NORMAL OPERATION. THE EXAMINATION OF THE ARTIFICIAL HORIZON REVEALED THAT DUE TO 'DIRT PACKED IN THE FILTER' AND EVIDENCE THAT THE GYRO WAS 'POORLY MAINTAINED,' IT WAS THE OPINION OF THE QUALITY CONTROL INSPECTOR FOR MID CONTINENT INSTRUMENT COMPANY THAT THE 'THIS UNIT WAS NOT RELIABLE ENOUGH TO FLY WITH.' THE PILOT'S PERSONAL FLIGHT TIME LOGBOOK WAS NOT RECOVERED, THUS, INSTRUMENT PROFICIENCY COULD NOT BE DETERMINED.
Probable cause
A MECHANICAL MALFUNCTION OF THE ARTIFICIAL HORIZON IN IMC THAT RESULTED IN SPATIAL DISORIENTATION OF THE PILOT AND HIS INABILITY TO MAINTAIN AIRPLANE ORIENTATION. A FACTOR IN THE ACCIDENT WAS THE IMPROPER MAINTENANCE OF THE ARTIFICIAL HORIZON.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record NYC92FA161
- Event ID
- 20001211X15485
- Case number
- NYC92FA161
- 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: 8a179aef9424428ab4da292a0b18a424fc10820f942a3797700f716279846256; retrieved 2026-09-21T00:59:45.437Z.