CHI89LA169 · Piper PA-34-200
Piper PA-34-200 · Accident: loss of control on ground/water during landing
From Cleveland Hopkins International Airport (CLE) to Weltzien Skypark Airport (15G)
Narrative check · The NTSB narrative appears to contradict this record's aircraft involved. Values are shown as recorded, not corrected; compare with the narrative.
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI89LA169
- 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-34-200 Narrative disagrees
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-34
- 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
- N16LL
- Operator
- Dan Weltzien
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Cleveland Hopkins International Airport (CLE), Cleveland, OHTo Weltzien Skypark Airport (15G)
- 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 · landing roll
- 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 on ground/water
- 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
- Directional control › Not maintained
- Pilot in command(cfi) › Supervision, inadequate
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE INSTRUCTOR (CFI) & STUDENT PLT WERE ON A PERSONAL FLT IN AN ACFT EQUIPPED WITH PEDAL BRAKES ON THE LEFT SIDE ONLY, BUT THE PARKING BRAKE WAS ACCESSIBLE TO BOTH PLTS. THE CFI ALLOWED THE STUDENT TO OCCUPY THE LEFT FRONT SEAT WHERE HE WOULD BE RESPONSIBLE FOR OPN OF THE NORMAL BRAKES. DRG THE APCH TO LND, THE CFI REMINDED THE STUDENT THAT THE BRAKES WERE ON THE STUDENT'S SIDE. THE CFI RPRTD 'I FLEW THE AIRPLANE AT THE NORMAL APPROACH SPEEDS AND SLOWED IT RIGHT DOWN ON TOUCHDOWN SO THAT BRAKING WOULD BE LITTLE OR ALMOST NONE AT ALL.' THE APCH WAS NORMAL UNTIL TOUCHDOWN, 'THEN THE ACFT STARTED PULLING TO THE LEFT AS IF SOMEONE HAD LOCKED UP THE LEFT BRAKE.' THE CFI TOLD THE STUDENT TO 'GET OFF THE BRAKE' & THE STUDENT INDCD HE DID NOT APPLY BRAKING. THE ACFT SLID SIDEWAYS, THE LEFT MAIN GEAR COLLAPSED & THE LEFT WING HIT THE TIRE OF ANOTHER ACFT. AN EXAM OF THE BRAKES REVEALED NO SIGN OF A MALFUNCTION. THE CFI HAD JUST RCVD HIS MULTI-ENG RATING ON 7/23/89. HE HAD ONLY 40 HRS OF MULTI-ENG FLT TIME, OF WHICH, 23 HRS WERE IN THIS MAKE & MODEL.
Probable cause
INADEQUATE SUPERVISION OF THE FLIGHT BY THE PILOT-IN-COMMAND (CFI) WHICH RESULTED IN LOSS OF DIRECTIONAL CONTROL OF THE AIRCRAFT. CONTRIBUTING FACTORS WERE: LACK OF RECENT EXPERIENCE IN THE TYPE OF OPERATION BY THE CFI, LACK OF TOTAL EXPERIENCE BY THE STUDENT PILOT, AND THE PARKED AIRCRAFT.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI89LA169
- Event ID
- 20001213X29080
- Case number
- CHI89LA169
- 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 1989-08-14.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 4ba8003f9f1d96eb27cc1277c45dce82b8ffcf4535a6a615af9502dfc676a778; retrieved 2026-09-23T07:15:58.383Z.