CHI06CA103 · Piper PA-32-301
Piper PA-32-301 · Accident: loss of control on ground/water during landing
From Washington Island Airport (2P2) to Campbell Airport (C81)
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI06CA103
- 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-32-301
- 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
- N8290X
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Washington Island Airport (2P2), Washington Is, WITo Campbell Airport (C81), Grayslake, IL
- 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 · landing roll
- 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 on ground/water
- 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 › Compensation for wind conditions, inadequate
- Pilot in command › Directional control, not maintained
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The single-engine airplane veered off the left side of runway 9 (3,270 feet by 40 feet, asphalt) during landing and sustained substantial damage. The winds 11 miles from the accident airport were 120 degrees at 11 knots gusting to 21 knots. The pilot reported that he flew a Global Positioning System (GPS) approach and cancelled his instrument flight rules (IFR) flight plan when he had the airport in sight. He entered a left downwind for landing on runway 9 and confirmed a right crosswind condition by observing the windsock. The airspeed was 90 knots with a right "crab" on final approach to landing. The pilot reported, "Prior to touchdown the wind calmed to the point that the crab was not needed." He reported the airplane touched down on the centerline of the dry runway. He reported, "Almost immediately after touchdown, the plane started moving left." He reacted by putting in full right aileron and applying right rudder, but he did not apply any pressure to the toe brakes. The airplane veered off the left side of the runway. The airplane encountered soft terrain, spun around, and impacted a ditch. The inspection of the airplane revealed that the wheels spun freely when turned and the brakes did not stick. The tires had no flat spots. The inspection of the runway revealed that there was no long skid mark on the runway, but there were black skid marks about 2 feet in length that were about 20 feet apart. There was no indication of braking when the airplane came in contact with the grass.
Probable cause
The pilot failed to compensate adequately for the crosswind condition and failed to maintain directional control during the landing roll. Contributing factors included the crosswind, the narrow runway, soft ground, and the ditch.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI06CA103
- Event ID
- 20060411X00419
- Case number
- CHI06CA103
- 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: e2a406de8872d603ae6fe9baeb994c7297e9b167295c3e675cfacfbf2f511462; retrieved 2026-09-22T05:02:00.010Z.