IAD05LA057 · Piper PA-28-151
Piper PA-28-151 · Accident: in flight collision with object during takeoff
From Hampton Airfield (7B3) to North Central State Airport (SFZ)
Event
- NTSB case
- IAD05LA057
- 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-28-151
- 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
- N8251F
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Hampton Airfield (7B3), Hampton, NHTo North Central State Airport (SFZ), Pawtucket, RI
- 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
- Destroyed
Cause areas
- Pilot in command › Planning/decision, improper
- Pilot in command › Preflight planning/preparation, not performed
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
Prior to departure, the pilot did not perform any preflight performance calculations. Following a run-up check of the engine, he configured the airplane for a short field takeoff, accelerated airplane in a turn onto the turf runway, and proceeded to take off. Once the airplane left the ground, the pilot knew that there was a problem, but was not sure if he could land the airplane with the amount of runway remaining. The airplane subsequently impacted trees during the climb out. During the takeoff, the pilot felt that the engine "was not running at full power," but could not recall any indications of the engine power instruments, nor did he hear any abnormal engine sounds. A witness observed the airplane during the takeoff, and became concerned after seeing the runway distance the airplane had covered, compared to the altitude it had achieved. The witness also noticed the airplane was taking off with a tailwind, with the windsock pointed "down the runway." He described the engine sound as "pulling pretty hard and doing what it was supposed to." A post accident examination of the airplane revealed no evidence of any pre-impact malfunction or failure. Calculation of the takeoff distance, that given the conditions on the day of the accident, and if the airplane were loaded to its maximum gross weight, departing from a paved runway, 2,700 feet was required to clear a 50-foot barrier. The runway was 2,100 feet long, and 60-foot trees were located 450 feet from the departure end.
Probable cause
The pilot's improper decision to depart with a tailwind, and his failure to perform preflight performance calculations.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record IAD05LA057
- Event ID
- 20050425X00498
- Case number
- IAD05LA057
- 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: f34e26ad58c7355c7c322d2d2c78c2d23e44c153657a0e1351747145ac19c190; retrieved 2026-09-21T09:08:29.718Z.