LAX05LA227 · Piper PA-28R-200
Regional Airline Academy Flight Schools Piper PA-28R-200 · Accident
From Mesa Gateway Airport (KIWA) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX05LA227
- 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-28R-200
- 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
- N2882R
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Mesa Gateway Airport (KIWA), Mesa, AZTo 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
- Unknown
- 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
- Undetermined
- 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
No findings designated as a cause are recorded in the NTSB data yet.
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) became aware of structural damage to the airplane during a ramp inspection. The left wing's false spar separated just aft of the left main landing gear. Additionally, the left wing support ribs were cracked and there were displaced rivets on top surface skin. The airplane's last annual inspection was performed about 22 flight hours prior to the damage being discovered. The operator stated that he did not know when, where, or who damaged the aircraft. The last flight in the airplane was conducted by a certified flight instructor (CFI) and pilot undergoing commercial instruction. During that abbreviated flight the CFI made a precautionary landing without mishap after takeoff due to the landing gear in transit light remaining on after gear retraction. The CFI reported that the gear in transit light had intermittently illuminated for the last several days on different flights. The date, time, and location utilized for this accident is referenced from the last flight for computer entry purposes only. A determination was not made regarding the identity of the pilot(s) that caused the damage to the training airplane.
Probable cause
substantial damage to the airplane during an unknown phase of flight for undetermined reasons.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX05LA227
- Event ID
- 20050713X01003
- Case number
- LAX05LA227
- 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: 8385d3ec68c77d54a2278077ed59f50f6ea296fafcc983ac5cd9d642b7e9e597; retrieved 2026-09-22T06:12:35.689Z.