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CHI84LA068 · Piper PA-23-250

28 Dec 1983 · Michigan City, IN, United States

Piper PA-23-250 · Accident: loss of control on ground/water during takeoff

From an unrecorded airport to Chicago O'Hare International Airport (ORD)

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Event

NTSB case
CHI84LA068
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
Charter & commuter
WeatherVisual meteorological conditions (VMC): good enough to fly by looking outside. Instrument conditions (IMC): cloud or low visibility, flying by instruments. Glossary
Instrument Meteorological Cond

Piper PA-23-250

Aircraft type
Piper PA-23
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
N54828
Operator
Unknown
Onboard fatalities
Unknown
Route
From not recordedTo Chicago O'Hare International Airport (ORD), Chicago, IL
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 135: Air Taxi & Commuter
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
Takeoff · roll/run
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 on ground/water
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

  • Pilot in command › Directional control, not maintained
  • Pilot in command › Ground loop/swerve, uncontrolled
  • Pilot in command › Proper alignment, misjudged

Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.

NTSB narrative

THE ACFT RAN OFF THE SNOW COVERED RWY INTO SOFT GROUND AND COLLAPSED THE NOSE GEAR. THE PLT SAID THAT DURING ACCELERATION FOR TAKEOFF HE FELT THE LEFT MAIN LANDING GEAR GO OFF THE LEFT SIDE OF THE RWY. HE REDUCED POWER BUT BY THIS TIME THE GEAR WAS IN SOFT GROUND AND THIS PULLED THE ACFT FURTHER OFF THE RWY. THE NOSE GEAR HIT A FURROW IN A CORNFIELD AND COLLAPSED. THE PLT SAID 2 OR 3 INCHES OF NEW SNOW HAD FALLEN DURING THE PREVIOUS NIGHT AND THE RWY WAS NOT PLOWED MAKING IT DIFFICULT TO DETERMINE THE POSITION OF THE CENTERLINE. THE RWY LIGHTS ARE DISPLACED ABOUT 15 FT FROM EITHER SIDE OF THE RWY.

Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset

Sources

NTSB record CHI84LA068
Event ID
20001214X45253
Case number
CHI84LA068
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: eac02e6275c886d477735d261f85f6a756fec987dfb6f0f26e0eeb03210c66f2; retrieved 2026-09-18T20:46:20.683Z.