NYC90FA075 · Piper PA-38-112
North Central Airways Piper PA-38-112 · Accident: in flight collision with terrain/water while maneuvering
From North Central State Airport (SFZ) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- NYC90FA075
- 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-38-112
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-38
- 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
- N2603G
- Operator
- North Central Airways
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From North Central State Airport (SFZ), Pawtucket, RITo 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
- Maneuvering
- 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 terrain/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
- Stall
- 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 › Altitude, inadequate
- Pilot in command › In-flight planning/decision, improper
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Smithfield, RI, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
ABOUT 5 MIN AFTER THE PLT & PASSENGER DEPARTED ON A LOCAL FLT, WITNESSES NOTED A DECREASE IN ENG POWER & SAW THE NOSE OF THE ACFT DROP. THE PLANE THEN DESCENDED & CRASHED ON WOODED TERRAIN. ONE WITNESS RPRTD THAT JUST BEFORE IMPACT, THE PLT WAS PRACTICING STALLS AT AN ALTITUDE OF ABOUT 1000' AGL. AN EXAM OF THE ENG REVEALED THE BOTTOM SPARK PLUGS WERE LEAD FOULED; HOWEVER, THE TOP SPARK PLUGS WERE NORMAL IN COLOR & WEAR. ONE PROP BLADE WAS BENT WITH AN 'S' SHAPE & IT CONTAINED CHORDWISE SCRAPE MARKS; ALSO, CUT BRANCHES WERE NOTED WHERE THE ACFT ENTERED TREES DURING IMPACT. THE PLT HAD RCVD HIS PVT PLT CERT ON THE PREVIOUS DAY; HIS TOTAL FLT TIME WAS ABOUT 68 HRS. THE ACFT'S GROSS WT WAS ESTD TO HAVE BEEN ABOUT 1740 LBS; ITS MAX CERT WT WAS 1670 LBS.
Probable cause
IMPROPER IN-FLIGHT PLANNING/DECISION BY THE PILOT, WHICH RESULTED IN INSUFFICIENT ALTITUDE TO RECOVER FROM A STALL. FACTORS RELATED TO THE ACCIDENT WERE: THE PILOT'S LACK OF TOTAL EXPERIENCE AND EXCESSIVE GROSS WEIGHT OF THE AIRPLANE.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record NYC90FA075
- Event ID
- 20001212X22803
- Case number
- NYC90FA075
- 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: e5139ef5fb314cf33b6febf99202ac25d7f18bdb7d7d67f3c7437ee108434704; retrieved 2026-09-21T02:55:11.124Z.