CHI06FA275 · Piper PA-28-140
Piper PA-28-140 · Accident: in flight encounter with weather en route
From Bismarck Municipal Airport (BIS) to Fergus Falls Municipal Airport - Einar Mickelson Field (FFM)
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI06FA275
- 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
- 1 · 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
- Instrument Meteorological Cond
Piper PA-28-140
- 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
- N9714W
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Bismarck Municipal Airport (BIS), Bismarck, NDTo Fergus Falls Municipal Airport - Einar Mickelson Field (FFM), Fergus Falls, MN
- 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
- En route · cruise
- 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 encounter with weather
- 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
- Visual flight rules (VFR) flight into instrument meteorological conditions (IMC)
- 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 › Aircraft control, not maintained
- Pilot in command › Flight into adverse weather, inadvertent
- Pilot in command › VFR flight into imc, continued
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The non-instrument rated private pilot departed on a cross-country flight into an area of forecast instrument meteorological conditions with widely scattered thunderstorms, rain, fog and mist. The pilot did not request, nor was he provided any weather briefing services prior to or during the accident flight. Additionally, no flight plan information was filed for the accident airplane within 24 hours of the accident. According to aircraft radar track data, the accident airplane was cruising 200 - 500 feet above ground level while en route to the planned destination. Weather Surveillance Radar data for the area showed a mixture of thunderstorms and rain showers scattered along the planned route of flight. The aircraft radar track data was plotted on a weather radar image for the corresponding time period. This composite image showed the last two aircraft beacon returns were 3 to 5 miles northwest of a level-three thunderstorm. The data indicated that the convective cell was moving toward the northeast and intensifying around the accident time. Instrument meteorological conditions with light to moderate turbulence were associated with the convective cell. The accident site was located about 1.5 miles southeast of the last recorded aircraft beacon return. Examination of the recovered wreckage revealed no evidence of a pre-impact mechanical malfunction. A review of the airframe, engine and propeller records found no history of unresolved airworthiness issues.
Probable cause
The non-instrument rated pilot's continued flight into instrument meteorological conditions which resulted in his inadvertent encounter with a thunderstorm and his loss of aircraft control. A factor to the accident was the thunderstorm.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI06FA275
- Event ID
- 20061012X01503
- Case number
- CHI06FA275
- 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: 5a9436dca08c23c559297056907702595b351add11167f506cfd39a2948f29f8; retrieved 2026-09-20T17:04:58.298Z.