CHI01FA291 · Piper PA-28-235
Piper PA-28-235 · Accident: abrupt maneuver while maneuvering
From Joplin Regional Airport (JLN) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI01FA291
- 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
- 1 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- Unknown
- 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-28-235
- 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
- N16405
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Joplin Regional Airport (JLN), Joplin, MOTo 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
- Maneuvering
- 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
- Abrupt maneuver
- 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 › Altitude/clearance, not maintained
- Pilot in command › Maneuver, initiated
- Reason for occurrence undetermined
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The airplane was destroyed when it impacted the ground in a steep descent. Witnesses reported seeing the airplane in level flight prior to making a steep descent and subsequently impacting the ground. The examination of the control system revealed no anomalies that could be identified as existing prior to the impact. No other mechanical deficiencies were found that could be identified as existing prior to the impact. There was a white radial mark on the face of the airspeed indicator beyond the 200 miles per hour mark.
Probable cause
The airplane's departure from level flight and subsequent impact with the terrain as a result of a maneuver initiated by the pilot, and the pilot's failure to maintain clearance from the terrain. The reason for the pilot's actions were not determined.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI01FA291
- Event ID
- 20010904X01873
- Case number
- CHI01FA291
- 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, coordinates. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 2001-08-25.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 3a738a104c602a900cb6751aecc0bce0c328a4ac57068048c0f47078eb78f0a2; retrieved 2026-09-20T20:23:42.641Z.