IAD05FA125 · Piper PA-32R-301
Piper PA-32R-301 · Accident: wheels up landing
From North Central State Airport (SFZ) to N99 · West Chester, PA
Event
- NTSB case
- IAD05FA125
- 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
- 2 · 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-301
- 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
- N9285R
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From North Central State Airport (SFZ), Pawtucket, RITo N99 · West Chester, PA
- 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
- Landing · flare/touchdown
- 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
- Wheels up landing
- 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 › In-flight planning/decision, improper
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 approach to landing at the destination airport, the airplane was observed on the final approach to the runway with the flaps fully extended, and the landing gear in the retracted position. During the landing, the flaps and the cabin entry step dragged on the runway pavement. The airplane's engine power then increased, and as the nose of the airplane pitched downward, the propeller contacted the runway. The airplane then climbed, banked left, and struck several trees located about 500 feet prior to the departure end of the runway. The airplane continued to climb, but subsequently descended into trees located about 1/2 mile from the airport, in a nose up attitude, and with the landing gear extended. Examination of the airplane following the accident revealed no evidence of any pre-impact malfunction or failure. Diphenhydramine, an over-the-counter antihistamine commonly used to treat allergy symptoms, was detected in the pilot's blood consistent with recent ingestion. In typical doses, this medication commonly results in drowsiness, and has measurable effects on performance of complex cognitive and motor tasks.
Probable cause
The pilot's improper decision to abort the landing after the airplane contacted the runway. A factor in the accident was the pilot's failure to ensure the landing gear was extended during the landing.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record IAD05FA125
- Event ID
- 20050831X01341
- Case number
- IAD05FA125
- 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: 7eeba0e43af2165a8f2051565d30a36821258c783d67e54393012345ac5feb99; retrieved 2026-09-20T17:55:11.676Z.