FTW83FA134 · Piper PA-28-181
Piper PA-28-181 · Accident: in flight collision with object during initial climb
From an unrecorded airport to David Wayne Hooks Memorial Airport (DWH)
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW83FA134
- 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-28-181
- 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
- N8384A
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo David Wayne Hooks Memorial Airport (DWH), Houston, 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
- Initial climb
- 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 collision with object
- 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
- 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 › Preflight planning/preparation, inadequate
- Pilot in command › Unsuitable terrain or takeoff/landing/taxi area, selected
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PLT ELECTED TO TAKEOFF TO THE NORTH ON A DOWNSLOPING PAVED ROAD. HE REPORTED THAT THE WIND WAS VARIABLE FROM THE SOUTHWEST AT 2 TO 4 KTS, GUSTING 4 TO 6 KTS. AT AUSTIN, TX, THE WIND WAS FROM 190 DEG AT 13 GUSTING 20 KTS & AT COLLEGE STATION, TX, IT WAS FROM 200 DEG AT 11 KTS. THE SELECTED ROADWAY WAS APPRX 1800 LONG, THEN CURVED TO THE RIGHT. DURING THE TAKEOFF, THE ACFT BECAME AIRBORNE BEFORE REACHING THE CURVE, BUT THE LEFT WING HIT 35 FT TREES ON THE LEFT SIDE OF THE ROAD AFTER LIFT-OFF & THE ACFT CRASHED. ACCORDING TO THE ACFT'S OPERATING HANDBOOK, 1624 FT WAS REQUIRED TO CLEAR A 50 FT OBSTACLE IN NO WIND CONDITIONS. THE PLT STATED THAT HE ENCOUNTERED AN ENG PROBLEM, BUT NO PREIMPACT PART FAILURE OR MALFUNCTION WAS FOUND. THE PLT ALSO STATED THAT HE HAD PREVIOUSLY ENCOUNTERED AN ENG PROBLEM & HAD MADE A PRECAUTIONARY LANDING ON THE ROAD, THEN ELECTED TO TAKEOFF AFTER THE ENG & FUEL CHECKED NORMAL. HOWEVER, WITNESSES TOLD LAW ENFORCEMENT PERSONNEL THAT THE PLT HAD LANDED & PICKED UP THE PASSENGER. SPEED & PROP SLASH MARKS INDICATED 2450 RPM
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW83FA134
- Event ID
- 20001214X42415
- Case number
- FTW83FA134
- 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: b5f872eed6946fd00bf31c64350305eb79f809c127bea5dc9c1e215b850ac7d4; retrieved 2026-09-21T18:00:30.280Z.