FLIGHT FINDINGSAVIATION OCCURRENCE MAP
Back to map

NYC00LA098 · Piper PA28R-200

26 Mar 2000 · Lehighton, PA, United States

Piper PA28R-200 · Accident: loss of control in flight during landing

From 22N to an unrecorded destination

Report a problem

Event

NTSB case
NYC00LA098
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 PA28R-200

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
N55820
Operator
Unknown
Onboard fatalities
Unknown
Route
From 22NTo 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
Landing · aborted
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
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, inadequate

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

NTSB narrative

The airplane was landing on Runway 26, a 3,000 foot-long, 50 foot-wide, asphalt runway. A witness observed the airplane touchdown on the runway, still crabbed approximately 30 degrees into the wind. The airplane bounced about 10 feet into the air and began to drift to the south side of the runway. The witness heard full power being applied to the engine, and stated the engine seemed to respond normally. The airplane was observed to climb slightly, roll to the left and descend into trees inverted. The airplane came to rest inverted in a wooded area, about 1,000 feet beyond the approach end of the runway, and 625 feet to left of the runway centerline. Portions of the wreckage, which included the main cabin were consumed by a post crash fire. Examination of the wreckage did not reveal any pre-impact failures of the airframe or engine. Winds reported at airports about 20 miles, east south-east, and 31 miles, south south-west of the accident site, were from 290 degrees at 16 knots with 21 knots gusts, and from 300 degrees at 22 knots with 30 knot gusts, respectively.

Probable cause

The pilot's inadequate compensation for the crosswind. A factor in this accident was the gusty crosswind condition.

Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset

Sources

NTSB record NYC00LA098
Event ID
20001212X20721
Case number
NYC00LA098
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: 8c0249f71d1bb8650f0df28d81146dd8f04f128c8edb5a1cfe812324d540f4b1; retrieved 2026-09-21T10:40:56.248Z.