ATL06FA102 · Piper PA-32-260
Piper PA-32-260 · Accident: in flight collision with object on approach
From Hilton Head Airport (HXD) to High Valley Airpark (GA87)
Event
- NTSB case
- ATL06FA102
- 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
- 5 · 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-32-260
- 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
- N3380W
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Hilton Head Airport (HXD), Hilton Head Is, SCTo High Valley Airpark (GA87), Suches, GA
- 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
- Approach · VFR go-around
- 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
- 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, poor
- Pilot in command › Raising of flaps, 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
Witnesses stated they observed the airplane enter a left downwind for runway 02. The airplane touched down at midfield and bounced, touched down and rolled about 100 feet. The airplane was about three quarters down the runway when the witnesses heard an increase in engine power. The airplane lifted off and climbed to about 60 feet agl before starting a steep turn to the left. The airplane disappeared from view and collided with a house. According to statements the pilot made to first responders, he had landed long on the grass strip and decided to perform a go-around. Examination of the airplane after the accident showed the wing flaps were extended to the 40-degree position. Examination of the airframe, flight controls, engine assembly and accessories revealed no evidence of a pre-crash mechanical failure or malfunction.
Probable cause
The pilot's failure to retract the wing flaps and his decision to make a turn while performing a go-around.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ATL06FA102
- Event ID
- 20060714X00943
- Case number
- ATL06FA102
- 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: 2d0b8fe89cd0539c872cd4cce7ef84f464c00bd38b4a97c1c8b55e726c9b0631; retrieved 2026-09-20T17:12:08.226Z.