CHI89LA164 · Piper PA38-112
Piper PA38-112 · Accident: hard landing
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI89LA164
- 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 PA38-112
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA38
- 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
- N9103A
- Operator
- Oulton, Frederick · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo 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
- Landing · flare/touchdown
- 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
- Hard landing
- 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
- Dual student › Aircraft handling, misjudged
- Dual student › Directional control, not maintained
- Dual student › Flare, improper
- Dual student › Relinquishing of control, not performed
- Dual student › Touchdown, abrupt
- Object › Airport facility
- Object › Runway light
- Pilot in command(cfi) › Remedial action, not possible
- Pilot in command(cfi) › Supervision, inadequate
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
DURING A DUAL INSTRUCTIONAL FLIGHT, WHILE PRACTICING TAKEOFFS AND LANDINGS IN PREPARATION FOR STUDENT SOLO FLIGHT, THE STUDENT PILOT REPORTEDLY FLARED TOO HIGH. THE CFI STATED THAT HE WAITED FOR THE STUDENT TO TAKE CORRECTIVE ACTION, BUT THE STUDENT FAILED TO DO SO, AND THE AIRCRAFT CONTACTED THE RUNWAY ABRUPTLY. THE AIRCRAFT DEPARTED THE LEFT SIDE OF THE RUNWAY, AND SKIDDED INTO A VASI LIGHT STRUCTURE BEFORE COMING TO A STOP. THE STUDENT PILOT HAD APPROXIMATELY 25 HOURS OF TOTAL FLIGHT TIME AT THE TIME OF THE ACCIDENT.
Probable cause
STUDENT PILOT'S MISJUDGED AIRCRAFT HANDLING DURING THE LANDING FLARE/TOUCHDOWN, AND THE CFI'S INADEQUATE SUPERVISION OF THE OPERATION. THESE RESULTED IN AN ABRUPT TOUCHDOWN, A SUBSEQUENT LOSS OF DIRECTIONAL CONTROL, AND THE AIRCRAFT'S COLLISION WITH THE VASI LIGHT STRUCTURES.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI89LA164
- Event ID
- 20001213X28784
- Case number
- CHI89LA164
- 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: b8f83fd2a0d1b039f26fcd0c0b6b104bb14cbb62f5431e6642cb6a4ba1d73d83; retrieved 2026-09-23T07:22:01.668Z.