FTW89FA096 · Piper PA-28-180
Piper PA-28-180 · Accident: loss of control in flight on approach
From 4AC · Albuquerque, NM to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW89FA096
- 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 PA-28-180
- 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
- N2211T
- Operator
- Potter, Don E. · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From 4AC · Albuquerque, NMTo 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
- Approach · VFR go-around
- 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
- Destroyed
Cause areas
- Pilot in command › Aircraft control, not maintained
- Pilot in command › Airspeed, not maintained
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE AIRCRAFT WAS RETURNING FROM A CROSS-COUNTRY IN DARK NIGHT CONDITIONS AND OBSERVED EN ROUTE TO THE AIRPORT FOR WHAT APPEARED TO BE A STRAIGHT-IN LANDING TO THE NORTHEAST. THE PILOT HAD EARLIER REPORTED TURBULENCE AND SOME CONCERN WITH THE LANDING WINDS. THE AIRCRAFT WAS DISCOVERED THE NEXT MORNING IN A LOCATION CONSISTENT WITH A CROSSWIND TO RUNWAY 4. IMPACT WAS A STEEP NOSE DOWN AND LEFT WING DOWN ATTITUDE. WITNESSES REPORTED STRONG GUSTY WINDS AND A LARGE THUNDERSTORM TO THE NORTHEAST AT THE TIME OF THE ACCIDENT. THE AIRPORT AREA IS AN ISOLATED LOCATION WITH LITTLE OR NO VISUAL REFERENCE FOR NIGHT OPERATIONS TO THE NORTH OF THE AIRPORT.
Probable cause
AN INADVERTENT STALL RESULTING FROM THE PILOT'S FAILURE TO MAINTAIN CONTROL OF THE AIRCRAFT AND TO MAINTAIN SUFFICIENT AIRSPEED. THE DARK NIGHT AND ADVERSE WIND CONDITIONS WERE CONTRIBUTING FACTORS.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW89FA096
- Event ID
- 20001213X28317
- Case number
- FTW89FA096
- 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 1989-05-22.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 41f86ba38bdd6ce81265f42363dc06818390116256e79b5858ea30c1976e1773; retrieved 2026-09-21T03:19:03.007Z.