CHI90FA190 · Piper PA-28
Piper PA-28 and Federal Armored Service Piper PA-60-600 · Accident: midair collision en route
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI90FA190
- 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
- 3 · 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
- Charter & commuter
- 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
Aircraft 1 · Piper PA-28
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-28
- 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
- N55354
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Canton-Plymouth-Mettetal Airport (1D2), Plymouth, MITo 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
- En route · climb to cruise
- 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
- Midair collision
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Destroyed
Aircraft 2 · Piper PA-60-600
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-60
- 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
- N8060J
- Operator
- Federal Armored Service
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Coleman A. Young Municipal Airport (DET), Detroit, MITo Jackson County Airport/Reynolds Field (JXN), Jackson, MI
- 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 135: Air Taxi & Commuter
- 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
- En route · cruise
- 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
- Midair collision
- 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 › Visual lookout, inadequate
- Pilot of other aircraft › Visual lookout, inadequate
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
A PIPER PA-28, N55354, HAD DEPARTED PLYMOUTH, MI & WAS CLIMBING FROM 1300' MSL ON A COURSE OF ABOUT 282 DEG WITH A GND SPEED OF 80 KTS. AT ABOUT THE SAME TIME, A PIPER PA-60, N8060J, WAS CRUISING AT 2100' MSL ON A FLT FROM DETROIT TO JACKSON, MI, ON A COURSE OF ABOUT 258 DEG WITH A GND SPEED OF 165 KTS. SUBSEQUENTLY, THE 2 ACFT CONVERGED & COLLIDED AT 2100' MSL. BOTH ACFT THEN PLUNGED TO THE GND & CRASHED. RADAR DATA & WRECKAGE EXAM REVEALED THE PA-60 HAD CONVERGED FROM THE RIGHT REAR OF THE PA-28; THE PA-28 CONVERGED ON THE PA-60 FROM ITS LOWER, LEFT, FORWARD AREA. THE PA-28 WAS ON AN INSTRUMENT TRAINING FLT WITH A RATED PVT PLT & AN INSTRUCTOR PLT (CFI) ABOARD. THE INVESTIGATION DID NOT REVEAL WHICH SEAT THE CFI WAS OCCUPYING. NO FLT PLAN HAD BEEN FILED FOR EITHER FLT, NOR WAS THERE ANY INDCN THAT EITHER FLT CREW HAD OBTAINED ATC/RADAR ASSISTANCE.
Probable cause
INADEQUATE VISUAL LOOKOUT BY THE PILOT OF THE PA-60. A FACTOR RELATED TO THE ACCIDENT WAS THAT NEITHER OF THE FLIGHT CREWS HAD OBTAINED ATC/RADAR ASSISTANCE.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI90FA190
- Event ID
- 20001212X23626
- Case number
- CHI90FA190
- 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: dd7071162a6f40ede3f0e3f57c6f13d94abe44348353d4f6d165c7858b325e87; retrieved 2026-09-18T14:05:50.964Z.