SEA08CA097 · Piper PA-28R-201
Piper PA-28R-201 · Accident: loss of control on ground during landing
From Phoenix Deer Valley Airport (DVT) to Phoenix Deer Valley Airport (DVT)
Narrative check · The NTSB narrative appears to contradict this record's location. Values are shown as recorded, not corrected; compare with the narrative.
Event
- NTSB case
- SEA08CA097
- 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-28R-201
- 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
- N963WW
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Phoenix Deer Valley Airport (DVT), Phoenix, AZTo Phoenix Deer Valley Airport (DVT), Phoenix, AZ
- 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
- Defining eventThe 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
- 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
- Aircraft › Aircraft oper/perf/capability
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot, who was training for her certified flight instructor certificate, was returning to the airport. Following the first touch down on the runway, she felt that "...something was wrong with the rudder pedals." She felt a slight tugging to the right, but once the airplane was airborne again she no longer felt this tugging. She then retracted the landing gear. As she was on downwind, she extended the landing gear and the green light for the nose gear momentarily flickered but became a solid green light. As she turned onto the final leg of the traffic pattern, she verified that the landing gear were down and locked. Upon touchdown, she immediately felt the airplane tugging to the right side and decided to abort the takeoff. The pilot began to pull the power back to idle and apply braking, while leaving the flaps extended. As she applied the brakes, the airplane pulled to the right, which felt to the pilot like the right brake was locked. The pilot removed her feet from the brakes evenly and the airplane turned quickly to the right. She attempted to correct with left rudder inputs; however, the airplane collided with a sign and sustained substantial damage to the right wing. A Federal Aviation Administration inspector reported that there were marks on the runway, consistent with the airplane touching down with the landing gear not pointed directly down the runway. Inspection of the airplane did not reveal any mechanical malfunctions with the landing gear or braking system. Review of the maintenance records did not indicate any recent discrepancy reports involving the landing gear or braking system.
Probable cause
The pilot's failure to maintain directional control of the airplane during landing.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record SEA08CA097
- Event ID
- 20080424X00539
- Case number
- SEA08CA097
- Dataset
- full-current
- Source SHA-256
- 5cf380f0061817c0331a6b2d8cc7e0ee3a79bea469a1001dc5c10e56f35f5ab3
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: 5cbc011639f0fc15db87a1bf8df46685efabac10e5e91a6915b461fee1af3ae6; retrieved 2026-09-15T09:34:25.936Z.