NYC83AA208 · Piper PA-24-180
Piper PA-24-180 · Accident: loss of control in flight en route
From Norfolk International Airport (ORF) to Plymouth Municipal Airport (PYM)
Event
- NTSB case
- NYC83AA208
- 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
- 4 · 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-24-180
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-24
- 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
- N7554P
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Norfolk International Airport (ORF), Norfolk, VATo Plymouth Municipal Airport (PYM), Plymouth, MA
- 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
- En route · cruise
- 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 in flight
- 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 › Aircraft handling, not maintained
- Pilot in command › Design stress limits of aircraft, exceeded
- Wing › Overload
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Pomona, NJ, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
DURING HIS WX BRIEFING, THE PLT WAS ADVISED OF AN AREA OF RAIN SHOWERS & SCATTERED THUNDERSTORMS ALONG HIS ROUTE OF FLT, AS WELL AS FLT PRECAUTIONS FOR OCCASIONAL MODERATE TURBULENCE BELOW 8000 FT WHICH WAS FORCAST. HE DEPARTED NORFOLK AT 1500. AT ABOUT 1630, THE PLT REPORTED TO ARTCC THAT 'WE'RE IN SOME HEAVY TURBULENCE NOW.' THIS WAS THE LAST RADIO TRANSMISSION. THE ACFT SUBSEQUENTLY WAS OBSERVED SPINNING & TUMBLING BEFORE IMPACT. THE OUTER PANELS OF BOTH WINGSHAD SEPARATED. MODERATE TO HEAVY RAIN SHOWERS EXISTED IN THE VICINITY WHERE RADAR CONTACT WAS LOST. THE PIC WAS SEATED IN THE RIGHT FRONT SEAT. THE PAX/PLT SEATED IN THE LEFT FRONT SEAT HELD A PRIVATE PLT CERTIFICATE WITH AN AIRPLANE SINGLE-ENG LAND RATING & WAS NOT INSTRUMENT RATED. HE HAD RECEIVED HIS INITIAL FLT INSTRUCTION FROM THE PIC. THE LAST ENTRY IN THE PAX/PLT'S LOG BOOK WAS 5/2/81.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record NYC83AA208
- Event ID
- 20001214X44300
- Case number
- NYC83AA208
- 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: 6d599e4befb7092cabfe88a1d6c9f8d7316670bb02ee8bed93b88ca3678a0983; retrieved 2026-09-21T06:20:49.468Z.