NYC84FGM01 · Piper PA-28-161
Piper PA-28-161 · Accident: loss of control in flight while maneuvering
From Ithaca Tompkins Regional Airport (ITH) to John Glenn Columbus International Airport (CMH)
Event
- NTSB case
- NYC84FGM01
- 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-28-161
- 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
- N8163P
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Ithaca Tompkins Regional Airport (ITH), ITECAH, NYTo John Glenn Columbus International Airport (CMH), Columbus, 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
- Maneuvering · turn to reverse direction
- 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
- 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 › Aircraft handling, not performed
- Pilot in command › Spatial disorientation
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Marshburg, PA, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
AFTER REFUELING AT ITHACA, NY, THE PLTS OF TWO PIPER PA-28 ACFT DEPARTED AS A FLT OF TWO. THEY HAD PLANNED TO CONTINUE THEIR FLT BACK TO CINCINNATI, OH WITH ANOTHER EN ROUTE STOP AT COLUMBUS, OH. THE NON-INSTRUMENT RATED PLT OF N8163P WAS FOLLOWING THE LEAD ACFT, N6888W. AFTER CHECKING THE WX & OBSERVING LIGHTNING AHEAD, THE FLT LEADER RADIOED THAT HE WAS TURNING BACK TO BRADFORE, PA TO LAND. AT THIS TIME (1915 EST) IT WAS DARK & THE ACFT WERE AT ABOUT 3000 TO 3300 FT MSL. THE #2 PLT TRIED TO KEEP THE LEAD ACFT IN SIGHT, DURING THE TURN, BUT WAS UNSUCCESSFUL. WHILE SEARCHING FOR THE LEAD PLANE, THE #2 PLT BECAME DISORIENTED & LOST CONTROL OF HIS ACFT. DURING THE ATTEMPTED RECOVERY, THE ACFT COLLIDED WITH TREES ON THE CREST OF A HILL AT APRX 2240 FT MSL. THE ACFT WAS DESTROYED, BUT THE 2 OCCUPANTS OF THAT ACFT RECEIVED ONLY MINOR INJURIES. THEY SPENT THE NIGHT IN THE FOREST.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record NYC84FGM01
- Event ID
- 20001214X45180
- Case number
- NYC84FGM01
- 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: local date, investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 1983-11-02.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 733b99f97042b1357845ad99340bf5f125514ba99bab00efb9cab0addaf58ed5; retrieved 2026-09-22T02:26:51.535Z.