BFO86FIA02 · Piper PA 28-161
FT. Eustis Flying Club Piper PA 28-161 · Accident: loss of control in flight en route
From W45 · Luray, VA to Felker Army Air Field (FAF)
Event
- NTSB case
- BFO86FIA02
- 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 28-161
- 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
- N36489
- Operator
- FT. Eustis Flying Club
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From W45 · Luray, VATo Felker Army Air Field (FAF), FT. EUSTIS, VA
- 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
- En route · climb to cruise
- 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; Tree(s)
- 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 › Altitude, inadequate
- Pilot in command › In-flight planning/decision, inaccurate
- Pilot in command › Stall, inadvertent
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE ACFT COLLIDED WITH TREES AND THE GROUND DURING A X-COUNTRY FLT OVER MOUNTAINOUS TERRAIN. THE PLT HAD CROSSED THE 1ST RIDGE AT APRX 800 FT AGL ACCORDING TO THE PLT. THE FRONT SEAT PASSENGER SAID LATER THAT HE COMPLAINED SEVERAL TIMES DURING THE FLT THAT THE ACFT WAS TOO LOW. HE SAID THAT THE PLT TOLD HIM THAT 'THE SCENARY IS BETTER DOWN HERE.' THE PASSENGER SAID THAT THE ACFT WAS NEVER HIGHER THAN THE THIRD RIDGE. WHEN THE PLT TRIED TO CLIMB OVER THIS THIRD RIDGE THE AIRSPEED BEGAN TO DROP. THE PASSENGER STATED THAT THE PLT CONTINUED A STEADY COURSE TOWARD THE RIDGE AND JUST PRIOR TO IMPACT TRIED TO CLIMB STEEPER. THE STALL WARNING WENT OFF AND SHORTLY AFTERWARDS THE ACFT IMPACTED THE TREES.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record BFO86FIA02
- Event ID
- 20001213X34406
- Case number
- BFO86FIA02
- 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: 2f5d4ba49bc7bc61b697d83692bab897d62b6a40fb334249629e4ad2508eea8a; retrieved 2026-09-21T16:52:38.832Z.