FTW83LA410 · Piper PA-28RT-201T PA-28RT-20
Piper PA-28RT-201T PA-28RT-20 · Accident: airframe, component or system failure during landing
From Esler Army Airfield / Esler Regional Airport (ESF) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW83LA410
- 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-28RT-201T PA-28RT-20
- 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
- N8448H
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Esler Army Airfield / Esler Regional Airport (ESF), Alexandria, LATo 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
- 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
- Airframe, component or system failure
- 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
- Landing gear, normal brake system › Failure, partial
- Pilot in command › Brakes(normal), improper use of
- Pilot in command › Directional control, not maintained
- Pilot in command › Distance, misjudged
- Pilot in command › Ground loop/swerve, not corrected
- Pilot in command › Remedial action, improper
- Pilot in command › Throttle/power control, improper use of
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE ACFT COLLIDED WITH TREES ABOUT 50 FT OFF THE RIGHT SIDE OF THE RWY AFTER THE LEFT BRAKE FAILED DURING HARD BRAKE INTERMITTENT APPLICATIONS. FAILURE TO RELEASE THE RIGHT BRAKE IN A TIMELY FASHION CAUSED THE ACFT TO SWERVE TO THE RIGHTAND OFF THE RWY. THE PLT THEN APPLIED FULL POWER WHILE SLIDING IN WET SOFT TERRAIN IN AN EFFORT TO FLY OVER THE SMALL TREES IN HIS PATH. REALIZING THERE WAS NOT ENOUGH ROOM HE REDUCED POWER JUST PRIOR TO TREE CONTACT. THE OPERATOR REPORTED THAT A NEOPRENE'O'RING ON THE LEFT BRAKE WAS FOUND SPLIT RESULTING IN LOSS OF BRAKE FLUID AND BRAKE FAILURE. FURTHER EXAMINATION REVEALED THAT ONE OF THE LEFT BRAKE PUCKS WAS EXCESSIVELY WORN. HARD BRAKE APPLICATION FORCED THIS 'O'RING OUT OF PLACE BECAUSE OF THE WORN PUCK. FURTHER BRAKE APPLICATION CAUSED THE 'O' RING TO BE PINCHED AND LOSE BRAKE FLUID.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW83LA410
- Event ID
- 20001214X44186
- Case number
- FTW83LA410
- 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: 487447b27d2e8f72dd3e3db849240a943332e71725c433737e7c3f03d2902e1b; retrieved 2026-09-23T21:28:55.151Z.