CHI02LA244 · Piper J3C-65
Piper J3C-65 · Accident: in flight collision with terrain/water while maneuvering
From Hillman, MI (private airstrip) to Unknown
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI02LA244
- 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 J3C-65
- Aircraft type
- Piper J3
- 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
- N6658H
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Hillman, MI (private airstrip)To Unknown
- 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
- In flight collision with terrain/water
- 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 › Clearance, not maintained
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 by postcrash fire and impact forces when the airplane was reportedly seen after takeoff banking towards another runway at the private airstrip. The airplane tipped to its right side, and the right wing hit the ground. The engine was described as cutting in and out and running roughly. Examination of the wreckage established control continuity to the cockpit area. The engine was attached to its engine mounts and exhibited fire damage. The top spark plugs were removed and the engine was rotated by hand. Thumb compression from each cylinder and valve train continuity was confirmed. The spark plugs were black in color with white deposits. The airplane was equipped with a propeller marked "UN AIRWORTHY". The pilot's last medical certificate was issued in 1982.
Probable cause
The pilot's failure to maintain terrain clearance.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI02LA244
- Event ID
- 20020814X01390
- Case number
- CHI02LA244
- 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 2002-08-12.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 738a115ab151e63c0bd3ad78d1e8b9ae0a961f83b63e2f58e2e4b065ecc24c3e; retrieved 2026-09-20T19:55:00.147Z.