NYC04LA109 · Piper PA-18-150
Piper PA-18-150 · Accident: undershoot on approach
From Myricks Airport (1M8) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- NYC04LA109
- 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
- 0 · 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-18-150
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-18
- 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
- N9862D
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Myricks Airport (1M8), Berkley, MATo not recorded
- 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
- Undershoot
- 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
- Tree(s)
- 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 › Distance/altitude, misjudged
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
Several witnesses observed the airplane as it was attempting to land on a turf runway, and recalled that it was higher and faster than normal. The witnesses then observed the airplane strike a tree, and descend to the ground. Examination of the accident site revealed that the airplane struck a 50-foot high tree located about 445 feet prior to the runway threshold. According to an FAA Airport Facilities Directory, the runway was a 2,466-foot long, 50-foot wide turf runway, and had a 756 foot displaced threshold, marked with lime. The directory also mentioned trees were located at the approach end of the runway. Examination of the runway revealed large patches of brown grass and tire marks were observed about 10 feet beyond the beginning of the runway surface. No markings were observed identifying a displaced threshold. The pilot was also the owner and manager of the airport. The winds reported at an airport located about 3 miles north of the accident site, about the time of the accident, were from 200 degrees at 13 knots, gusting to 19 knots.
Probable cause
The pilot's misjudgment of altitude/distance and his failure to maintain adequate clearance from trees while landing. Factors related to the accident were the lack runway displaced threshold markings, the trees located at the end of the runway, and the gusting wind conditions.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record NYC04LA109
- Event ID
- 20040430X00537
- Case number
- NYC04LA109
- 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: 16f3c3927dce0fcf7baae204bfb8e23d017e2af3ac03eb656152c843f80628fc; retrieved 2026-09-21T09:18:06.595Z.