CHI85FEI01 · Piper PA-32R-301T PA-32R-301
Piper PA-32R-301T PA-32R-301 · Accident: undershoot on approach
From ZGZ · Steubenville, OH to SKY · Sandusky, OH
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI85FEI01
- 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-32R-301T PA-32R-301
- 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
- N8462U
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From ZGZ · Steubenville, OHTo SKY · Sandusky, OH
- 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 · VFR pattern final
- 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
- Undershoot
- 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 › Clearance, not maintained
- Pilot in command › Compensation for wind conditions, not understood
- Pilot in command › Planned approach, inaccurate
- Pilot in command › Proper touchdown point, misjudged
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE ACFT COLLIDED WITH TREES AT NIGHT DURING A SHORT FINAL APPROACH TO LAND AND CRASHED TO THE GROUND IN THE BACK YARD OF A PRIVATE RESIDENCE. THE PLT, WHO WAS SERIOUSLY INJURED IN THE ACCIDENT, SAID HE FLEW A NORMAL PATTERN INTO A 15-20 KT WIND WHEN TREE LIMBS APPEARED IN THE LANDING LIGHTS JUST BEFORE THE COLLISION & GRND IMPACT. THE WX WAS VMC WITH 5000 FT SCATTERED CLOUDS, VISIBILITY 15 MILES, WIND350 DEGREES AT 10 KTS. UNICOM REPORTED THE WIND AS OUT OF THE NORTH AT 15 TO 20 KTS. ALL ACFT COMPONENT PARTS WERE FOUND AT THE SCENE EXCEPT FOR SMALL WINGTIP FIBERGLASS PIECES. THE PLT & PASS'G ARE RECOVERING FROM THEIR INJURIES
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI85FEI01
- Event ID
- 20001214X41525
- Case number
- CHI85FEI01
- 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: 21f079c392ada5ed0f3356e2a3ccc1de1ee79f0481cf8454d141852cb496f03c; retrieved 2026-09-21T17:24:08.842Z.