Regional Express Piper PA-34-200T accident
Piper PA-34-200T · Accident: in flight encounter with weather en route
From Salt Lake City International Airport (SLC) to Joslin Field Magic Valley Regional Airport (TWF)
Event
- NTSB case
- SEA91FA020
- 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
- Charter & commuter
- WeatherVisual meteorological conditions (VMC): good enough to fly by looking outside. Instrument conditions (IMC): cloud or low visibility, flying by instruments. Glossary
- Instrument Meteorological Cond
Piper PA-34-200T
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-34
- 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
- N4325X
- Operator
- Regional Express
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Salt Lake City International Airport (SLC), Salt Lake City, UTTo Joslin Field Magic Valley Regional Airport (TWF), Twin Falls, ID
- 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
- In flight encounter with weather
- 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 › Aircraft control, not maintained
- Pilot in command › Design stress limits of aircraft, exceeded
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
DURING A WX BRIEFING THE PILOT WAS BRIEFED THAT A COLD FRONT WX SYSTEM WAS MOVING THROUGH THE ROUTE OF FLIGHT, WITH MODERATE ICING IN CLOUDS TO 16000 FT. THE PILOT HAD TO RETURN TO THE RAMP AFTER TAXIING TO TAKEOFF DUE TO A DEAD BATTERY. AS THE BATTERY WAS BEING RECHARGED, THE PILOT REPORTEDLY SEEMED APPREHENSIVE ABOUT THE WX CONDITIONS AND TOLD THE MECHANIC TO FEEL FREE TO WRITE UP ANY DISCREPANCY THAT WOULD CANCEL THE FLIGHT. THE PILOT ALSO STATED HE DIDN'T LIKE FLYING IN THE KIND OF WEATHER THAT WAS IN THE AREA. ABOUT 50 MINUTES AFTER DEPARTURE THAT PILOT RADIOED THAT HE WAS IN SERIOUS TROUBLE. NO FURTHER COMMUNICATIONS WERE RECEIVED. THE WRECKAGE WAS LOCATED IN AN AREA OF STEEP MOUNTAINOUS TERRAIN THAT RISES TO OVER 9000 FT MSL. EVIDENCE SHOWED THAT THE WINGS AND STABILATORS SEPARATED PRIOR TO GROUND IMPACT. LEADING EDGE SURFACES OF THE AIRPLANE EXIBITED PITTING AND ABRASION OF PAINT, WITH AREAS OF PAINT STRIPPED DOWN TO BARE METAL. BLIZZARD WEATHER CONDITIONS EXISTED AT THE TIME.
Probable cause
THE PILOT-IN-COMMAND'S FAILURE TO MAINTAIN CONTROL OF THE AIRPLANE IN INSTRUMENT METEOROLOGICAL CONDITIONS. FACTORS WHICH CONTRIBUTED TO THE ACCIDENT WERE THE PILOT'S APPREHENSION OF FLYING IN THE FORECASTED WEATHER, AND THE ADVERSE WEATHER CONDITIONS ENCOUNTERED DURING THE FLIGHT.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record SEA91FA020
- Event ID
- 20001212X24694
- Case number
- SEA91FA020
- 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: 6f005e88eb256454d5d32e927c12582cf9a3a31a2251f38f26c6e510eb66ee00; retrieved 2026-09-18T14:05:23.162Z.