FTW91FA033 · Piper PA-30
Piper PA-30 · Accident: airframe, component or system failure during takeoff
From an unrecorded airport to Bill & Hillary Clinton National Airport/Adams Field (LIT)
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW91FA033
- 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-30
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-30
- 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
- N291R
- Operator
- Paul G. Jones · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo Bill & Hillary Clinton National Airport/Adams Field (LIT), Little Rock, AR
- 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
- 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
- Pilot in command › Diverted attention
- Pilot in command › Proper climb rate, not maintained
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
DURING A NIGHT DEPARTURE, THE AIRPLANE IMPACTED TREES 65 FEET ABOVE THE GROUND, APPROXIMATELY .25 MILE FROM THE RUNWAY AFTER EXECUTING A TURN LEFT OF 90 DEGREES. THE AIRPLANE CAME TO REST IN A LAKE. THE RUNWAY IN USE FOR THE DARK NIGHT DEPARTURE WAS 20. THE RUNWAY WAS LOCATED IN A DEPRESSION ON TOP OF A MOUNTAIN SHROUDED BY FOG AND CLOUDS, PROVIDING NO HORIZON FOR A VISUAL REFERENCE. EXAMINATION OF THE AIRPLANE'S ELECTRICAL SYSTEM REVEALED THAT AT THE TIME OF IMPACT THE INSTRUMENT PANEL LIGHTS WERE NOT ILLUMINATED. THE SWITCH WAS IN THE ON POSITION. THE INSTRUMENT PANEL LIGHTS CIRCUIT BREAKER WAS FOUND POPPED. EVIDENCE OF THE PILOT STRIKING THE LEFT SIDE OF HIS HEAD ON THE INSTRUMENT PANEL AND THE SIGNIFICANT INJURIES TO THE LEFT SIDE OF THE TORSO AND EXTREMITIES INDICATED THE PILOT WAS REACHING DOWN WITH THE RIGHT HAND, WITH THE LEFT HAND ON THE YOKE, IN AN EFFORT TO RESET THE INSTRUMENT PANEL LIGHT'S CIRCUIT BREAKER.
Probable cause
THE PILOT'S FAILURE TO MAINTAIN A PROPER CLIMB RATE FOLLOWING LOSS OF HIS VISUAL REFERENCES AND ALLOWING HIMSELF TO BECOME DIVERTED DURING THE TAKEOFF. FACTORS IN THE ACCIDENT WERE INTERRUPTED INSTRUMENT LIGHTING AND THE DARK NIGHT CONDITIONS.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW91FA033
- Event ID
- 20001212X16317
- Case number
- FTW91FA033
- 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: b1c4ce60ab6fedfe70387f702bab9b1920a7975d39802a5ae9bd6ab256e1c85b; retrieved 2026-09-21T01:59:37.471Z.