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NYC89FA036 · Piper PA-28RT-201T PA-28RT-20

19 Nov 1988 · GANS, PA, United States

Piper PA-28RT-201T PA-28RT-20 · Accident: in flight encounter with weather en route

From Greensburg Jeannette Regional Airport (5G8) to Jacksonville International Airport (JAX)

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Event

NTSB case
NYC89FA036
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
2 · 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-28RT-201T PA-28RT-20

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
N2153U
Onboard fatalities
Unknown
Route
From Greensburg Jeannette Regional Airport (5G8), Jeannette, PATo Jacksonville International Airport (JAX), Jacksonville, FL
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
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 › Design stress limits of aircraft, exceeded
  • Pilot in command › Flight controls, improper use of
  • Pilot in command › Flight into known adverse weather, performed
  • Wing › Ice

Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Gans, PA, the place the record names. Not the accident site.

NTSB narrative

DRG A WX BRIEFING BEFORE TAKEOFF, THE PLT WAS ADZD OF ICE PELLETS, CLEAR ICING & MODERATE TO SEVERE TURBC IN WESTERN PENNSYLVANIA. AFTER TAKEOFF, HE OBTAINED AN IFR CLNC AT 1144 EST & WAS EVENTUALLY CLRD TO CLIMB TO 13,000'. THE PLT INQUIRED ABOUT THE CLOUD TOPS & WAS ADZD THEY WERE IN EXCESS OF FL 280. AT 1202 EST, WHILE CLIMBING THRU APRX 11,800', THE PLT REQUESTED CLNC TO RETURN TO THE DEPARTURE ARPT. HE WAS CLRD TO TURN TO 090 DEG, WHILE ATC WAS COORDINATING AN IFR CLNC BACK TO THE ARPT. AT 1203 EST, THE PLT WAS ASKED IF HE WAS HAVING ANY DIFFICULTY & HE REPLIED THAT HE WAS PICKING UP ICE & WAS HAVING A PROBLEM WITH HIS ATTITUDE INDICATOR. AT APRX 1204, THE PLT WAS GIVEN A FREQ CHANGE, & SHORTLY THEREAFTER, RADIO & RADAR CONTACT WERE LOST. BEFORE THE ACFT CRASHED, A WITNESS SAW IT TUMBLING WITH ONE WING MISSING. THE LEFT WING & PIECES OF THE EMPENNAGE WERE FOUND APRX 1/2 TO 1-1/4 MI FROM THE WRECKAGE WITH EVIDENCE OF POSITIVE OVERLOAD.

Probable cause

PILOT'S BAD JUDGEMENT IN FLYING IN WEATHER CONDITIONS BEYOND THE CAPABILITIES OF HIS AIRCRAFT. THE PILOT OVERSTRESSED THE AIRCRAFT AND SHEARED THE LEFT WING BY MAKING AN ABRUPT TURN IN TURBULENT AIR ABOVE THE DESIGN MANEUVERING SPEED (VA). THE ACCUMULATION OF ICE, FLYING IN IMC CONDITIONS AND A PROBLEM WITH THE ATTITUDE INDICATOR WERE CONTRIBUTING FACTORS.

Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset

Sources

NTSB record NYC89FA036
Event ID
20001213X27335
Case number
NYC89FA036
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: b94d5e9f4f994c869303957727fb4d6e910c3e38bc225c3eb66f442b98f2875c; retrieved 2026-09-21T03:28:54.548Z.