Package Express Piper PA-34-200 accident
Piper PA-34-200 · Accident: loss of control in flight during takeoff
From Columbia Metropolitan Airport (CAE) to Charleston International Airport (CHS)
Event
- NTSB case
- ATL06LA021
- 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
- Charter & commuter
- 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-34-200
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-34
- 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
- N997BW
- Operator
- Package Express
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Columbia Metropolitan Airport (CAE), Columbia, SCTo Charleston International Airport (CHS), Charleston, SC
- 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 135: Air Taxi & Commuter
- 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
- Loss of control in flight
- 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
- Company maintenance personnel › Maintenance, installation, 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 takeoff the pilot rotated the airplane, and the airplane pitched up violently. The pilot lost control and the airplane climbed to approximately 200 feet. The pilot regained control of the airplane and conducted an emergency landing. The airplane collided with the runway, and veered off the right side of the departure end of runway. Examination of the airplane by an FAA inspector revealed that the nose gear strut punctured through the forward bulkhead, and cockpit instrument panel. Examination of the stabilator trim revealed one of the two bolts required on the stabilator trim arm was missing. Review of aircraft logbooks revealed the last inspection conducted on the airplane was a 100-hour completed on November 29, 2005. In addition to the 100-hour inspection, a repair was performed on the stabilator. Review of maintenance records showed that the airplane had flown 13 flight hours since the stabilator repair and prior to the accident.
Probable cause
Maintenance personnel's improper installation of the stabilator trim arm which resulted in separation of a bolt, loss of control during takeoff, and a subsequent hard landing.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ATL06LA021
- Event ID
- 20051214X01970
- Case number
- ATL06LA021
- 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: 874219217c351da6188b1d46420ba7e5bda6f4d1befccf4b8f30552f8d630e0e; retrieved 2026-09-18T14:57:06.990Z.