NYC04LA007 · Piper PA-28-180
Piper PA-28-180 · Accident: in flight collision with object on approach
From Hazleton Municipal Airport (HZL) to Delaware Airpark (33N)
Event
- NTSB case
- NYC04LA007
- 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 PA-28-180
- 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
- N5320L
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Hazleton Municipal Airport (HZL), Hazelton, PATo Delaware Airpark (33N), Cheswold, DE
- 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
- Approach · VFR pattern final
- 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 object
- 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
- Utility pole
- 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
- Pilot in command › Clearance, not maintained
- Pilot in command › Proper glidepath, 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 arrived in the airport area after a night cross-country flight. On final approach to the runway, the passenger noticed off to her right that a tree was above them, and subsequently felt a bump. She then observed power lines, saw a bright flash, and did not recall anything further. The airplane struck an unlit 56-foot high utility pole at the 46-foot level, which was located approximately 940 feet prior to the runway threshold, and came to rest in a vertical position. A NOTAM was issued about two weeks prior to the accident, to inform pilots of an unlit 75-foot high power lines, located 1,000 feet east of runway 27. The NOTAM was in effect at the time of the accident. A printed copy of the NOTAM was posted on the airport's bulletin board. The runway was a 3,582-foot long, 60-foot wide asphalt runway, equipped with medium intensity lighting. The runway had a 350 foot displaced threshold, which was marked with white paint, and illuminated in accordance with FAA AC 150/5340-30. The runway was not equipped with a visual glideslope indicator. According to the FAA Airplane Flying Handbook regarding difficulties in perceiving altitude during night approaches, "Distance may be deceptive at night due to limited lighting conditions... A low, shallow approach is definitely inappropriate during a night operation." The calculated glideslope from the utility pole to the runway threshold was approximately 3.41 degrees. The calculated glideslope from the utility pole to the displaced runway threshold was approximately 2.49 degrees.
Probable cause
The pilot's failure to maintain a proper glide path to the runway, and his failure to maintain obstacle clearance which resulted in an in-flight collision with an unlit utility pole. Factors related to the accident were the unlit utility pole, and the dark night conditions.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record NYC04LA007
- Event ID
- 20031016X01743
- Case number
- NYC04LA007
- 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: 588b6a02bf1fb3680fef31e2b80f578b573c980fbf84eb1c5454c29a82c43eb1; retrieved 2026-09-20T18:54:00.037Z.