MKC83FA046 · Piper PA-28R-201T PA-28R-201
Piper PA-28R-201T PA-28R-201 · Accident: in flight encounter with weather
From East Kansas City Airport (3GV) to Charles B. Wheeler Downtown Airport (MKC)
Event
- NTSB case
- MKC83FA046
- 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
- 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
- General aviation
- 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-28R-201T PA-28R-201
- 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
- N2941Q
- Operator
- John F. Hastert · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From East Kansas City Airport (3GV), Grain Valley, MOTo Charles B. Wheeler Downtown Airport (MKC), Kansas City, MO
- 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
- Unknown
- 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 encounter with weather
- Also codedOther events the NTSB coded in the sequence, such as a wire strike after a loss of power. Flight Findings uses them for its kinds of event. Glossary
- Visual flight rules (VFR) flight into instrument meteorological conditions (IMC)
- 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 › Aircraft handling, not maintained
- Pilot in command › Design stress limits of aircraft, exceeded
- Pilot in command › Spatial disorientation
- Pilot in command › VFR flight into imc, inadvertent
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE AIRCRAFT CRASHED ABOUT 8 MI EAST OF THE DEPARTURE AIRPORT AFTER THE NON-INSTRUMENT RATED PILOT TOOK OFF ON A DARK NIGHT WITH FOG AND A LOW CEILING. THE WEATHER AT THE NEAREST REPORTING STATION WAS IN PART: 600 FT OVERCAST, VISIBILITY 6 MI WITH FOG. ANOTHER PILOT ESTIMATED THAT THE CEILING WAS 800 TO 1000 FT AND THE VISIBILITY WAS 3 TO 4 MI. AN EXAMINATION OF THE WRECKAGE REVEALED THAT THE LEFT WING AND STABILATOR HAD SEPARATED IN FLIGHT. A WITNESS NEAR THE ACCIDENT SITE HEARD WHAT SOUNDED TO HIM LIKE A SMALL PLANE PERFORMING AEROBATICS. HE REPORTED THAT THESE SOUNDS WERE FOLLOWED BY A "BACKFIRE", THEN A THUD.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record MKC83FA046
- Event ID
- 20020917X04983
- Case number
- MKC83FA046
- 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. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 1982-12-27.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 3c0e029b29788a2c9adb0a28a7c80fd4d093c82695a28e74a3f22b833ce591b5; retrieved 2026-09-21T07:20:09.566Z.