CHI92FA013 · Piper PA28-140
Aretz Flying Service Piper PA28-140 · Accident: in flight collision with object during initial climb
From an unrecorded airport to UCY · Union City, IN
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI92FA013
- 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 PA28-140
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA28
- 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
- N38713
- Operator
- Aretz Flying Service
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo UCY · Union City, IN
- 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
- Initial climb
- 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
- In flight collision with object
- 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 › Compensation for wind conditions, not performed
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE ACCIDENT AIRPLANE WAS SEEN TO TAXI TOWARD THE RUNWAY DURING THE EARLY HOURS OF DARKNESS. THE DESTROYED AIRPLANE WAS DISCOVERED THE NEXT MORNING IN A FIELD 500 FEET EAST OF THE AIRPORT PROPERTY. NO FLIGHT PLAN WAS ON FILE. THE PILOT OF ANOTHER AIRPLANE DEPARTING FROM THE AIRPORT ABOUT THE SAME TIME DESCRIBED VERY STRONG CROSSWINDS. THE OBSERVED WINDS AT THE NEAREST REPORTING STATION WERE 80 DEGREES TO THE LEFT OF THE DEPARTURE RUNWAY HEADING UNDER OVERCAST SKIES. THE MEASURED VELOCITY WAS 20 KNOTS GUSTING TO 25. THE AIRPLANE STRUCK A TREE 400 FEET RIGHT OF THE EXTENDED CENTERLINE OF THE DEPARTURE RUNWAY ABOUT 75 FEET ABOVE GROUND LEVEL.
Probable cause
FAILURE OF THE PILOT TO COMPENSATE FOR WIND CONDITIONS DURING INITIAL CLIMB. FACTORS ASSOCIATED WITH THE ACCIDENT ARE CROSSWIND CONDITIONS AND A DARK NIGHT LIGHT CONDITION.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI92FA013
- Event ID
- 20001212X18259
- Case number
- CHI92FA013
- 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: local date, investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 1991-10-19.
- API snapshot SHA-256: e29a5c485172d6171f2b62139a0f4e76104b0af993e21b5c2eee0dfe54042d3c; retrieved 2026-09-21T01:30:45.937Z.