LAX02LA126 · Piper PA-28-181
Piper PA-28-181 · Accident: on ground/water collision with object while taxiing
From Phoenix Goodyear Airport (GYR) to Phoenix Goodyear Airport (GYR)
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX02LA126
- 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
- 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-28-181
- 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
- N4181M
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Phoenix Goodyear Airport (GYR), Goodyear, AZTo Phoenix Goodyear Airport (GYR), Goodyear, AZ
- 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
- Taxi · to runway
- 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
- On ground/water collision with object
- 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
- Dual student › Clearance, misjudged
- Dual student › Procedures/directives, not followed
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
While taxiing to the active runway, the student pilot taxied into a parked refueling truck in the ramp area between shade hangars "G" and "F." The student thought there was enough room for him to maneuver around the refueling truck. The right wing struck the fuel tank and swung the airplane around where it came to a stop after the propeller struck the rear bumper of the truck. There were no mechanical anomalies noted with the airplane or braking system. According to the flight school's policy/procedures, if there is an obstruction to taxiing, a fuel truck or vehicle, the solo student must bring the airplane to a full stop and wait until the fuel truck or vehicle has moved.
Probable cause
The student pilot's misjudgment of clearance and his failure to adhere to the flight school's policy/procedures for taxiing around obstructions.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX02LA126
- Event ID
- 20020409X00481
- Case number
- LAX02LA126
- 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, coordinates. 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: 00aca0b97943d30d78de5f68f3da1bdc329a581ff79b21896c38ec4269e456e9; retrieved 2026-09-22T11:01:37.184Z.