CHI85LA155 · Piper PA-32RT-300T PA-32RT-30
Piper PA-32RT-300T PA-32RT-30 · Accident: in flight encounter with weather on approach
From Coleman A. Young Municipal Airport (DET) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI85LA155
- 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-32RT-300T PA-32RT-30
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-32
- 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
- N2135A
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Coleman A. Young Municipal Airport (DET), Detroit, MITo 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
- 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
- In flight encounter with weather
- 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
- Pilot in command › Compensation for wind conditions, inadequate
- Pilot in command › Go-around, delayed
- Pilot in command › In-flight planning/decision, improper
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
AFTER A PRACTICE INSTRUMENT APCH, THE PLT (PIC) ENTERED THE TRAFFIC PATTERN TO LAND ON RWY 23. WHILE IN THE PATTERN, THEAIR BECAME VERY TURBULENT. UNICOM REPORTED THE WIND WAS FROM 270 DEG AT 20 GUSTING 35 KTS. ON FINAL APCH WITH THE FLAPS FULLY EXTENDED, THE PLT INITIATED A GO-AROUND AT APRX 50 FT AGL & APPLIED POWER TO 36' MANIFOLD PRESSURE. HE STATED THATTHE AIRSPEED WAS APRX 110 KTS WHEN THE ACFT ENCOUNTERED A SEVERE VERTICAL DOWNWIND SHEAR, STRUCK THE GROUND APRX 10 FT WEST OF THE RWY, & HIT A RWY LIGHT. TWO WITNESSES NOTED THAT THE ACFT APPEARED SO SLOW ON FINAL APCH THAT THEY WENT TO THE UNICOM TO ADVISE THAT 'THE WINDS WERE NOW 290 DEG AT 25 GUSTING TO 35.' THEY SAID POWER WAS APPLIED & THE ACFT PITCHED NOSE DOWN. ALSO, A WITNESS REPORTED 'HEAVY' WX APRX 10 TO 15 MI WEST OF THE ARPT, MOVING EAST, & RAIN BEGAN SHORTLY AFTER THE ACCIDENT. THE FLT MANUAL NOTED: WHEN POWER IS ADVANCED FOR A GO-AROUND FROM A LOW POWER, FULL FLAP APPROACH, A NOSE DOWN PITCH WILL OCCUR WHICH MUST BE COUNTERED WITH AFT CONTROL INPUT.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI85LA155
- Event ID
- 20001214X36124
- Case number
- CHI85LA155
- 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: a48aa89153cc35cdc87778b89a6f9ece8910c134bf97d1ce96cc58b54d56e803; retrieved 2026-09-22T01:54:22.594Z.