SEA04LA180 · Piper PA-32R-301T
Piper PA-32R-301T · Accident: in flight collision with object during takeoff
From Picabo Airport (ID82) to Corona Municipal Airport (AJO)
Event
- NTSB case
- SEA04LA180
- 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-32R-301T
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-32
- 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
- N880SC
- Operator
- Bob Cullen
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Picabo Airport (ID82), Picabo, IDTo Corona Municipal Airport (AJO), Corona, CA
- 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
- Takeoff
- 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
- 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 › Aborted takeoff, not performed
- Pilot in command › Procedures/directives, not followed
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
During the takeoff from a grass/turf runway, the pilot-in-command failed to ensure that the propeller control lever remained in the full forward position during the entire takeoff sequence. As a result, the aircraft did not lift off the ground at a point that it otherwise would have. Because the pilot did not abort the takeoff when it became clear that the aircraft was not performing as it should, the aircraft lifted off late, collided with some trees and a fence, and then settled back onto the terrain. It then experienced a collapse of all three landing gear. There was no indication that there had been any malfunction of an aircraft system, or that the engine was not capable of producing full power. The pilot-in-command did not use a checklist during his pre-takeoff and takeoff activities.
Probable cause
The pilot's failure to set the propeller control for takeoff performance needed to outclimb obstacles. The pilot's failure to use the checklist, trees, and a fence are contributing factors.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record SEA04LA180
- Event ID
- 20040920X01464
- Case number
- SEA04LA180
- 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: 85462e6eb85fe42e63eee9b53f3d397a2263c1b31c5ea0adcf19d1b9491cb689; retrieved 2026-09-22T06:46:13.353Z.