FTW87FA061 · Piper PA-42
Piper PA-42 · Accident: loss of control on ground/water during takeoff
From 4R2 · Horseshoe Bay, TX to Austin Bergstrom International Airport (AUS)
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW87FA061
- 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-42
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-42
- 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
- N81SM
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From 4R2 · Horseshoe Bay, TXTo Austin Bergstrom International Airport (AUS), Austin, TX
- 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
- Takeoff · roll/run
- 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
- Destroyed
Cause areas
- Pilot in command › Aborted takeoff, delayed
- Pilot in command › Aircraft preflight, inadequate
- Pilot in command › Airspeed(vlof), not obtained
- Pilot in command › Emergency procedure, inadequate
- Pilot in command › Powerplant controls, improper use of
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PILOT MADE A FAIRLY LONG TAXI FROM THE RAMP TO THE END OF THE RUNWAY AND THEN STARTED HIS TAKEOFF ROLL WITH THE PARKING BRAKE STILL PARTIALLY SET. THE BRAKES BECAME VERY HOT AND THE COMPONENT PARTS EXPANDED. AFTER ROLLING ALMOST 3,000 FEET THE BRAKES TIGHTENED UP TO THE EXTENT THAT BOTH MAIN GEAR TIRES STARTED LEAVING BLACK SKID MARKS WHICH CONTINUED UNTIL THE AIRCRAFT RAN OFF THE END OF THE RUNWAY WITHOUT OBTAINING FLYING SPEED, A DISTANCE OF 3,168 FEET. IT WAS NOTED, THROUGH A DESIGN FEATURE OF THE AIRCRAFT, THAT THE PARKING BRAKE HANDLE COULD BE PLACED IN THE RELEASED POSITION WITHOUT THE BRAKE BEING RELEASED. HOWEVER, THIS WOULD GIVE THE APPEARANCE THAT IT HAD BEEN RELEASED. THE MAIN GEAR TIRES WERE WORN ALMOST SLICK DURING THIS ATTEMPTED TAKEOFF. BOTH MAIN GEAR BRAKES HAD BEEN OVERHEATED DURING THIS TIME TO THE EXTENT THAT THEY WERE DESTROYED. THE ACFT WAS DESTROYED BY COLLISION WITH TREES, ROCKS AND A FIRE HYDRANT AT THE BOTTOM OF A HILL OFF THE END OF THE RWY.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW87FA061
- Event ID
- 20001213X30229
- Case number
- FTW87FA061
- 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: f7dac603a1dc6e8342bef652762fea8a9ebc3aacafdbd4e0d9a48964d78132a8; retrieved 2026-09-21T16:42:31.086Z.