BFO89LA011 · Piper PA-24-250
Piper PA-24-250 · Accident: in flight encounter with weather en route
From Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA) to Hampton Roads Executive Airport (PVG)
Event
- NTSB case
- BFO89LA011
- 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
- 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-24-250
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-24
- 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
- N8215P
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA), Washington, DCTo Hampton Roads Executive Airport (PVG), Portsmouth, VA
- 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 · 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
- Substantial
Cause areas
- Pilot in command › Generator, not selected
- Pilot in command › Weather evaluation, misjudged
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PLT RECEIVED A WX BRIEFING WHICH FORECAST IFR AFTER 1800 EST. HE DEPARTED DCA IN LIGHT DRIZZLE CONDITIONS. ARPX 35 NM FROM DCA, RADAR SERVICE WAS TERMINATED AND THE PLT ATTEMPTED TO CONTACT ATC TO NO AVAIL. HE REPORTED THAT NEAR THE BROOK VOR THE VOR NEEDLE WAS MOVING SLUGGISHLY AND THE AMMETER SHOWED A STRONG DISCHARGE. THE PLT STATED HE NOTED THE DG NOT WORKING. DUE TO THE DECREASE IN CEILING HE MADE A DESCENT TO 1000 FT MSL TO REMAIN VFR. AFTER 2 OR 3 MINUTES THE PLT MADE A 180 DEG TURN TO REMAIN VFR AND NOTED THE CEILING HAD DECREASED AROUND HIM AND HE WAS IN AN OPEN AREA APRX 1 TO 2 MILES WIDE. DURING THE TURN, PLT NOTED ARTIFICIAL HORIZON TUMBLED. HE ELECTED TO MAKE A PRECAUTIONARY LANDING ON A ROAD DURING WHICH THE LEFT WING CONTACTED A STOP SIGN RESULTING IN SUBSTANTIAL DAMAGE. POST ACCIDENT INSPECTION OF ACFT FAILED TO REVEAL ANY FAILURE OR MALFUNCTION OF THE ELECTRICAL OR VACUUM SYSTEM OTHER THAN THE BATTERY WAS NEARLY DRAINED.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record BFO89LA011
- Event ID
- 20001213X27215
- Case number
- BFO89LA011
- 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: 31cb98831be0441a9a87160f35cd7ade39a64fb80d35398e88036921c28dcf5f; retrieved 2026-09-23T08:19:24.037Z.