CHI92FA267 · Piper PA-61-601P
Piper PA-61-601P · Accident: airframe, component or system failure while maneuvering
From James M. Cox Dayton International Airport (DAY) to Frederick W. Smith International Airport (MEM)
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI92FA267
- 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
- 1 · 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-61-601P
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-61
- 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
- N717BB
- Operator
- Brent J. Black · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From James M. Cox Dayton International Airport (DAY), Vandalia, OHTo Frederick W. Smith International Airport (MEM), Memphis, TN
- 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
- Maneuvering
- 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
- 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 › Design stress limits of aircraft, exceeded
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PILOT WAS ON SECOND CORPORATE FLIGHT OF THE DAY AND COMPLAINED TO THE AVIONICS TECHNICIAN ABOUT THE AUTOPILOT AND ASKED HIM TO ADJUST IT. THE TECHNICIAN SAID IT WOULD REQUIRE A FLIGHT CHECK. THE PILOT SAID HE DIDN'T HAVE TIME FOR THAT, AND GOT THE TECHNICIAN TO TELL HIM HOW TO PERFORM THE ADJUSTMENT. RADAR SHOWS THE AIRPLANE STABLE AT 14,100 FEET AFTER DEPARTURE. IT THEN BEGINS TO DEVIATE FROM CRUISE ALTITUDE BETWEEN PLUS 100 FEET TO MINUS 200 FEET. CENTER GIVES THE PILOT A FIFTEEN DEGREE COURSE CHANGE FOR TRAFFIC AND THE PILOT ACKNOWLEDGES THE INSTRUCTION WHILE THE AIRPLANE IS DEVIATING OFF COURSE. RADAR CONTACT WAS LOST AND NO FURTHER RADIO TRANSMISSIONS WERE RECEIVED FROM THE PILOT. WITNESSES ON THE GROUND REPORTED HEARING A LOUD EXPLOSION FOLLOWED BY A MUFFLED EXPLOSION, AND SEEING THE AIRPLANE EXIT CLOUDS VERTICALLY. THE OUTBOARD SIX FEET OF BOTH WINGS WERE FOUND 1.25 MILES FROM CRASH SITE.
Probable cause
EXCEEDING THE DESIGN STRESS LIMITS OF THE AIRPLANE BY THE PILOT IN COMMAND.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI92FA267
- Event ID
- 20001211X15643
- Case number
- CHI92FA267
- 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: 45296dc0824c58a232e8e784f633f5b5ed6424016a3a8fd6944ad8065b616849; retrieved 2026-09-21T00:57:29.962Z.