Tri Star Transportation Piper PA-31-350 accident
Piper PA-31-350 · Accident: loss of control on ground/water during landing
From Wichita Dwight D. Eisenhower National Airport (ICT) to Topeka Regional Airport (FOE)
Event
- NTSB case
- MKC86LA032
- 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
- Charter & commuter
- WeatherVisual meteorological conditions (VMC): good enough to fly by looking outside. Instrument conditions (IMC): cloud or low visibility, flying by instruments. Glossary
- Instrument Meteorological Cond
Piper PA-31-350
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-31
- 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
- N4NP
- Operator
- Tri Star Transportation
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Wichita Dwight D. Eisenhower National Airport (ICT), Wichita, KSTo Topeka Regional Airport (FOE), Topeka, KS
- 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 135: Air Taxi & Commuter
- 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
- Pilot in command › Directional control, not maintained
- Pilot in command › Flight into known adverse weather, continued
- Pilot in command › In-flight planning/decision, improper
- Pilot in command › Overconfidence in personal ability
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Topeka, KS, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
N4NP DIVERTED FROM THE ORIGINAL DESTINATION FORBES FIELD TOPEKA,KANSAS TO BILLARD FIELD,B NM AWAY, DUE TO WEATHER. BILLARD ATCT ADVISED THE FLIGHT DURING INITIAL CONTACT, BEFORE N4NP REACHED THE ILS FOF, OF THE RUNWAY BRAKING ACTION. THE PILOT SAID BRAKING WAS REPORTED AS NIL. THE ATCT ALSO ADVISED THE FLIGHT, ALONG WITH THEIR LANDING CLEARANCE, THAT THE WIND WAS FROM 360 DEGREES AT 17 KNOTS AND TOWER VISIBILITY WAS 5/8 OF A MILE. THE CONTROLLER STATED THAT N4NP LANDED LONG AND RAN OFF THE SIDE OF RUNWAY 13 NEAR THE DEPARTURE END. WHEN THE AIRCRAFT ENTERED SOFT TERRAIN BESIDE THE RIGHT LANDING GEAR COLLAPSED.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record MKC86LA032
- Event ID
- 20001214X38472
- Case number
- MKC86LA032
- 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: f639ddee09e8cba95b09faaf8bfda53e724aace6630dcbbe0cefc31f48b89fa9; retrieved 2026-09-18T20:12:06.267Z.