CHI92FA044 · Piper PA-32RT/300T PA-32RT/30
Piper PA-32RT/300T PA-32RT/30 · Accident: loss of control on ground/water during takeoff
From an unrecorded airport to St. Louis Lambert International Airport (STL)
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI92FA044
- 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-32RT/300T 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
- N39555
- Operator
- Gene E. Decker · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo St. Louis Lambert International Airport (STL), St. Louis, MO
- 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
- 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 › Aborted takeoff, not performed
- Pilot in command › Remedial action, inadequate
- Pilot in command › Wind information, disregarded
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PILOT OF THE HIGH PERFORMANCE SINGLE-ENGINE AIRPLANE OBTAINED A WEATHER BRIEFING PRIOR TO ARRIVING AT THE DEPARTURE AIRPORT. UPON ARRIVAL, THE PILOT CONVERSED WITH THE AIRPORT MANAGER. THE AIRPORT MANAGER OBTAINED CURRENT WEATHER CONDITIONS FOR THE PILOT WHICH RELATED TO AN AIRPORT APPROXIMATELY 10 MILES NORTHEAST. THE REPORTED WINDS WERE 200 DEGREES AT 15 KNOTS WITH GUSTS TO 31 KNOTS. THE PILOT DEPARTED RUNWAY 15 SHORTLY AFTER OBTAINING THE WIND INFORMATION. THE AIRPORT MANAGER STATED HE OBSERVED THE AIRPLANE'S MAIN LANDING GEAR TIRES SMOKING DURING THE TAKEOFF ROLL. SHORTLY AFTER THIS HE HEARD AN EXPLOSION AND SAW FIRE AND SMOKE. A FIREMAN WHO ARRIVED SHORTLY AFTER THE ACCIDENT OBSERVED THE WIND SOCK POINTING IN A SOUTHEASTERLY DIRECTION. THE RUNWAY DISPLAYED 1,609 FEET OF SKID MARKS MAKING A GRADUAL ARC TO THE RIGHT. THE CLEARWAY, BETWEEN THE RUNWAY AND TAXIWAY, DISPLAYED 334 FEET OF TIRE DEPRESSION AND FURROW MARKS WHICH PARALELED THE RUNWAY BEFORE TERMINATION.
Probable cause
THE PILOT'S DISREGARD FOR WIND CONDITIONS, NOT ABORTING THE TAKEOFF, AND INADEQUATE REMEDIAL ACTION BY THE PILOT AFTER THE AIRPLANE BECAME AIRBORNE. FACTORS ASSOCIATED WITH THE ACCIDENT ARE AN INADEQUATE WEATHER EVALUATION BY THE PILOT, NOT MAINTAINING DIRECTIONAL CONTROL DURING THE TAKEOFF ROLL, AND AFTER LIFTOFF, ON THE PART OF THE PILOT. ADDITIONAL FACTORS CONTRIBUTING TO THIS ACCIDENT WERE SELF-INDUCED PRESSURE AND AN OVER-CONFIDENCE IN PERSONAL ABILITY ON BEHALF OF THE PILOT.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI92FA044
- Event ID
- 20001212X18550
- Case number
- CHI92FA044
- 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: 5838658cf0730ed50e2b32efbb74b30d584e207587081c12da222f80e79bd146; retrieved 2026-09-21T01:27:28.405Z.