NYC93LA036 · Piper PA-32RT-301T PA-32RT-30
Piper PA-32RT-301T PA-32RT-30 · Accident: loss of control on ground/water during takeoff
From Jaffrey Airfield Silver Ranch Airport (AFN) to Northampton Airport (7B2)
Event
- NTSB case
- NYC93LA036
- 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-32RT-301T PA-32RT-30
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-32
- 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
- N3017P
- Operator
- Carl T. Matuszko · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Jaffrey Airfield Silver Ranch Airport (AFN)To Northampton Airport (7B2), Northampton, MA
- 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
- Loss of control on ground/water
- 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
- Landing gear, nose gear › Collapsed
- Other maintenance personnel › Maintenance, major repair, improper
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Jaffrey, NH, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
DURING THE TAKEOFF ROLL, THE AIRPLANE SWERVED UNCONTROLLABLY TO THE LEFT, DEPARTED THE RUNWAY AND WENT DOWN AN EMBANKMENT. POST ACCIDENT INVESTIGATION DISCLOSED A FRACTURE OF THE NOSE LANDING GEAR STRUT WHERE IT ATTACHES TO THE ENGINE MOUNT. THE NOSE LANDING GEAR PARTIALLY COLLAPSED AND DIRECTIONAL CONTROL WAS NOT POSSIBLE. THE FRACTURE AREA HAD BEEN WELDED AS PART OF REPAIR TO THE ENGINE MOUNT DURING AN ANNUAL INSPECTION. ACCORDING TO A NTSB METALLURGICAL REPORT ABOUT THE WELD, '...EXAMINATION OF THE FRACTURE REVEALED NUMEROUS WELD DEFECTS SUCH AS POOR FUSION, EXCESSIVE POROSITY AND VOIDS....' IN ADDITION, THE METAL IN THE WELD AREA WAS FOUND TO BE SIGNIFICANTLY SOFTER THAN THE SURROUNDING METAL.
Probable cause
AN IMPROPER WELD BY OTHER MAINTENANCE PERSONNEL WHICH RESULTED IN THE NOSE GEAR COLLAPSING, AND A LOSS OF DIRECTIONAL CONTROL ON TAKEOFF.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record NYC93LA036
- Event ID
- 20001211X16218
- Case number
- NYC93LA036
- 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: 18665719cef6a0c86f97af3e48874bb0b64b6d789ee83d0f38652e2299677272; retrieved 2026-09-21T23:04:38.079Z.