MKC89FA094 · Piper J3C
Piper J3C · Accident: loss of control in flight while maneuvering
From Browns Airport (EPG) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- MKC89FA094
- 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
- Visual Meteorological Cond
Piper J3C
- Aircraft type
- Piper J3
- 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
- N33066
- Operator
- Nelson, Max M. · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Browns Airport (EPG), Weeping Water, NETo not recorded
- 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
- Maneuvering
- 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
- Stall
- 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 › Airspeed, inadequate
- Pilot in command › Impairment(alcohol)
- Pilot in command › Judgment, poor
- Stall
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PLT AND HIS PASSENGER (WIFE), WHO HAD BEEN SEPARATED FOR SOME TIME, DEPARTED ON A LOCAL FLT FROM WEEPING WATER, NE. ALTHOUGH NOT VERIFIED, THE PURPOSE OF THE FLT WAS BELIEVED TO BE FOR PERSONAL REASONS. LATER, SEVERAL WITNESSES OBSERVEDTHE ACFT FLYING LOW & SLOW OVER THE PLATTE RIVER. A WITNESS NEAR ASHLAND, NE, RPRTD THE ACFT WAS SO LOW THAT THE PLT INITIATED A CLIMB TO CROSS OVER A BRIDGE. WITNESSES LAST SAW THE ACFT FLYING UP THE MEANDERING RIVER (UPSTREAM) AT LOW ALTITUDE. SUBSEQUENTLY, IT WAS FOUND WHERE IT HAD CRASHED IN 3 TO 4 FT OF WATER, ABOUT 30 YDS FROM THE SHORE. THE ACFT CRASHED IN A STEEP NOSE DOWN ATTITUDE, ON A DOWNSTREAM HEADING. THE NOSE OF THE ACFT TOOK THE BRUNT OF THE IMPACT, BUT THERE WAS ALSO DAMAGE TO THE FORWARD COCKPIT, WINGS, WING STRUTS & LANDING GEAR. THE EMPENNAGE & AFT FUSELAGE WERE UNDAMAGED. NO PREIMPACT PART FAILURE OR MALFUNCTION OF THE ACFT WAS FOUND. TOXICOLOGY CHECKS SHOWED THE PLT HAD A URINE/ALCOHOL LVL OF 0.108% & A BLOOD/ALCOHOL LVL OF 0.058%.
Probable cause
POOR JUDGEMENT OF THE PILOT BY FLYING WHILE PHYSICALLY IMPAIRED FROM ALCOHOL CONSUMPTION, AND HIS FAILURE TO MAINTAIN ADEQUATE AIRSPEED, WHILE FLYING OVER A MEANDERING RIVER, WHICH RESULTED IN A STALL. A CONTRIBUTING FACTOR WAS THE PILOT'S INADEQUATE ALTITUDE TO RECOVER FROM THE STALL.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record MKC89FA094
- Event ID
- 20001213X28165
- Case number
- MKC89FA094
- 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 1989-04-22.
- API snapshot SHA-256: ff23962318445cd9fec2eb227638733b305cba9a9bd8e0f09fb240f001452456; retrieved 2026-09-21T03:20:28.378Z.