Empire Airlines Piper PA-31 accident
Piper PA-31 · Accident: airframe, component or system failure on approach
From C · Utica, NY to C · Washington, DC
Event
- NTSB case
- DCA82AA009
- 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
- 2 · 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
- Visual Meteorological Cond
Piper PA-31
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-31
- 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
- N546BA
- Operator
- Empire Airlines
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From C · Utica, NYTo C · Washington, DC
- 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
- Approach
- 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
- Airframe, component or system failure
- 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
- Flight control, flap › Asymmetrical
- Flt control syst, wing flap control › Inadequate
- Flt control syst, wing flap control › Worn
- Manufacturer › Acft/equip, inadequate handling/perf capabilities
- Pilot in command › Aircraft handling, not possible
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Ithaca, NY, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
THE ACFT WAS ON A SCHEDULED COMMUTER FLT FROM UTICA, NY TO WASHINGTON, DC WITH A STOP AT ITHACA, NY. THE EN ROUTE PORTION OF THE FLT FROM UTICA TO ITHACA WAS NORMAL. AT 0735 EST, THE ACFT WAS AT 6000 FT MSL WHEN APCH CONTROL INFORMED THE AIRCREW TO EXPECT AN ILS APCH TO RWY 32 AT ITHACA. AT 0739, AN EMERG WAS DECLARED CONCERNING A SPLIT FLAP COND WITH 1 FLAP DWN. DRG THE NEXT 5 MIN, THE CREW RETAINED CONTROL OF THE ACFT WHILE DSCNDG FROM APRX 2500 TO 1900 FT. AT 0744:40, THE CREW RPRTD ON THE LOCALIZER COURSE AT 9 MI FROM THE ARPT, THEN RPRTD MAINTAINING CONTROL WITH FULL RGT AILERON. SHORTLY AFTER RPRTG THE GND IN SIGHT, THE PLANE CRASHED & BURNED IN A WOODED AREA, 6.7 MI FROM THE ARPT. IT DESCENDED THRU THE TREES IN AN 80 TO 90 DEG L BANK, APRX 24 DEG NOSE DWN. FND R FLAP 34 DEG DWN & L FLAP UP. THE INBOARDFEMALE SPLINE COMPONENT OF THE L FLAP FLEX CABLE WAS WORN & THE MALE FITTING WOULD ROTATE WITHIN. CAR 3.339 REQD A MECHANICAL FLAP INTERCONNECT WHEN ACFT CAN NOT BE CONTROLLED W SPLIT FLAPS. MOD LOW ALT TURBC & LOW LVL WND SHEAR ENCTRD
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record DCA82AA009
- Event ID
- 20020917X01906
- Case number
- DCA82AA009
- 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: 6959f26b46191fc6717c47215070118cb8fee37df2c01a9163b766048385a99f; retrieved 2026-09-18T14:33:42.712Z.