MIA91LA007 · Piper PA-28-181
Piper PA-28-181 · Accident: on ground/water collision with terrain/water during takeoff
From an unrecorded airport to Lawrenceville Vincennes International Airport (LWV)
Event
- NTSB case
- MIA91LA007
- 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
- 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
Piper PA-28-181
- 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
- N8634C
- Operator
- Snyder, Norman L. · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo Lawrenceville Vincennes International Airport (LWV), Lawrenceville, IL
- 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
- 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
- On ground/water collision with terrain/water
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Substantial
Cause areas
- Pilot in command › Clearance, not maintained
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Rolling Fork, MS, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
THE ACCIDENT OCCURRED AT A PVT ARPT. THE PLT STATED THAT HE ELECTED TO TAKEOFF ON THE GRASS NEXT TO THE CONCRETE/ASPHALT RWY BECAUSE THERE WAS A SHARP EDGE AT THE BEGINNING OF IT & THE RWY CONTAINED RUTS & LOOSE SAND PILES. HE ALSO STATED THAT HE OBSERVED A HIGH ROW OF WEEDS NEXT TO THE GRASS BUT DID NOT OBSERVE A DITCH NEXT TO THE TALL WEEDS. AFTER APPLYING POWER HE RELEASED THE BRAKES & WHILE PERFORMING A SOFT FIELD TAKEOFF PROCEDURE, FELT THE ACFT PULL TO THE RT. HE APPLIED LT RUDDER TO CORRECT THEN ABORTED THE TAKEOFF. THE ACFT VEERED TO THE RT & TRAVELLED INTO A DITCH. THE OCCUPANTS ESCAPED UNHARMED. ACCORDING TO AN FAA INSPECTOR WHO EXAMINED THE ARPT, THE RWY DID NOT CONTAIN RUTS AS DESCRIBED BY THE PLT BUT THE GRASS EXTENSION BEFORE THE RWY WAS SOFT.
Probable cause
THE FAILURE OF THE PILOT TO MAINTAIN WINGTIP CLEARANCE WITH TALL GRASS AT THE EDGE OF THE RUNWAY DURING THE GROUND ROLL.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record MIA91LA007
- Event ID
- 20001212X24508
- Case number
- MIA91LA007
- 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: 5600af11868b0c954d15243c9f046fdaa30e6dc6972ae86f024c50698e3bc4b8; retrieved 2026-09-18T18:58:54.745Z.