NYC88FA229 · Piper PA-28R-201
Piper PA-28R-201 · Accident: loss of control in flight en route
From Dillant Hopkins Airport (EEN) to 5B0 · WINDHAM ARPT, CT
Event
- NTSB case
- NYC88FA229
- 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
- 4 · 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
- Instrument Meteorological Cond
Piper PA-28R-201
- 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
- N3478M
- Operator
- Robert Silver
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Dillant Hopkins Airport (EEN), Keene, NHTo 5B0 · WINDHAM ARPT, CT
- 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 · descent
- 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
- Visual flight rules (VFR) flight into instrument meteorological conditions (IMC)
- 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 › Spatial disorientation
- Pilot in command › Spiral, uncontrolled
- Pilot in command › VFR flight into imc, continued
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Pomfret, CT, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
THE PIPER ARROW PA-28R-201, HAD ASKED ATC FOR VECTORS TO WINDAM AIRPORT. AFTER BEING VECTORED THE PILOT REQUESTED HIS DISTANCE FROM THE AIRPORT. HE WAS TOLD THAT HE WAS 12 MILES FROM THE AIRPORT, THE PILOT THEN DECIDED TO DESCEND. ATC ADVISED THE PILOT TO DESCEND AT PILOTS DESCRETION AND TO MAINTAIN VFR. RADAR CONTACT WAS LOST AT ABOUT 2100 FEET. WHEN ATC TRIED TO CONTACT THE PILOT AND ADVISE HIM THAT RADAR CONTACT HAD BEEN LOST, THERE WAS NO REPLY. WEATHER IN THE AREA WAS IMC AND THE PILOT WAS NOT INSTRUMENT RATED. THE AIRCRAFT IMPACTED IN A WOODED AREA, IN AN ALMOST VERTICAL ATTITUDE. NOTHING WAS FOUND TO INDICATE ANY MALFUNCTION OF THE AIRCRAFT.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record NYC88FA229
- Event ID
- 20001213X26673
- Case number
- NYC88FA229
- 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: local date, investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 1988-08-28.
- API snapshot SHA-256: be0f34a4eb883c80b3b7ac6fe3f9a98e09a3fd857091e93715b217b061351719; retrieved 2026-09-21T03:35:18.454Z.