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NYC91FA136 · Piper PA-24-250

18 May 1991 · Ravenna, OH, United States

Piper PA-24-250 · Accident: loss of control in flight on approach

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Event

NTSB case
NYC91FA136
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
2 · 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-24-250

Aircraft type
Piper PA-24
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
N7808P
Operator
William C. Jaeck · private individual
Onboard fatalities
Unknown
Route
From not recordedTo 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
Approach
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 in flight
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
Stall/mush; 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(cfi) › Airspeed, not maintained

Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.

NTSB narrative

THE WIFE OF THE AIRPLANE OWNER WAS RECEIVING INSTRUCTION IN A 'PINCH HITTER' COURSE. A GUIDELINE FOR INSTRUCTORS OF THIS COURSE REFERENCED MAXIMUM BANK ANGLES OF 30 DEGREES AND TO NOT FRIGHTEN THE STUDENT. AFTER ONE TOUCH AND GO, THE AIRPLANE WAS OBSERVED TO ENTER A STEEP 360 DEGREE TURN FOR APPARENT SPACING BEHIND ANOTHER AIRCRAFT. THE AIRCRAFT THEN DESCENDED AND DISAPPEAR BEHIND TREES. WITNESSES HEARD A SURGE OF POWER BEFORE IMPACT. AN EXAM OF THE FLIGHT INSTRUCTOR'S (CFI'S) LOGBOOK SHOWED HE HAD NOT LOGGED FLIGHT TIME IN THE MAKE AND MODEL OF AIRPLANE, THOUGH HE HAD FLOWN ON A PREVIOUS FLIGHT WITH THE OWNER. THE LOG BOOK WAS CURRENT THROUGH TWO DAYS BEFORE THE ACCIDENT. NO PREIMPACT PART FAILURE OR MALFUNCTION OF THE AIRCRAFT OR ENGINE WAS FOUND.

Probable cause

FAILURE OF THE INSTRUCTOR PILOT (CFI) TO ASSURE THAT ADEQUATE AIRSPEED WAS MAINTAINED, AFTER MANEUVERING (TURNING) FOR SPACING BEHIND ANOTHER AIRCRAFT, WHICH RESULTED IN AN INADVERTENT STALL/MUSH. FACTORS RELATED TO THE ACCIDENT WERE: THE IMPROPERLY PLANNED APPROACH AND THE CFI'S LACK OF FLIGHT EXPERIENCE IN THE MAKE AND MODEL OF AIRCRAFT.

Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset

Sources

NTSB record NYC91FA136
Event ID
20001212X17093
Case number
NYC91FA136
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: 2781fc3b1bd06382680c03c59b302d2d18748557b3c27e7a2bb09f421e448ff7; retrieved 2026-09-21T01:48:57.691Z.