FTW03FA008 · Piper PA-28-140
Piper PA-28-140 · Accident: in flight collision with terrain/water while maneuvering
From Gastons Airport (3M0) to Springfield Branson National Airport (SGF)
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW03FA008
- 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
- 3 · 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-28-140
- 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
- N4344J
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Gastons Airport (3M0), Lakeview, ARTo Springfield Branson National Airport (SGF), Springfield
- 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 single-engine airplane impacted a vertical bluff while maneuvering shortly after takeoff from a grass runway. The flight instructor, a private pilot, and a student flew to the airport, ate dinner, and departed just before nightfall because the runway did not utilize runway lights. Numerous witnesses reported the airplane did not accelerate normally during the takeoff roll, and it took nearly all of the 3,200-foot turf runway to liftoff. The witnesses then described a slow, nose-high climb. The airplane flew to the east along a river before turning to left prior to encountering power lines. The airplane impacted the bluff, and erupted in flames. A post-accident examination of the airplane and engine revealed no anomalies that would have prevented their normal operation. The flap handle was found selected to 25 degrees. People familiar with the airport indicated that the best way to depart the airport area was to fly along a valley that veered toward the northeast instead of flying along the river as the accident flight did. The river is in line with steep bluffs and is crossed by a power lines.
Probable cause
the pilot's failure to maintain clearance with the terrain while maneuvering.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW03FA008
- Event ID
- 20021016X05326
- Case number
- FTW03FA008
- 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: 83a51cc9b6340b701c1a5b43168e136cf2487c7945ce4c8a7257bff248a83da9; retrieved 2026-09-20T19:44:25.890Z.