WPR09CA011 · Piper PA-38-112
Golden Eagle Enterprises Piper PA-38-112 · Accident: collision during takeoff/landing on approach
From Fresno Chandler Executive Airport (FCH) to Fresno Chandler Executive Airport (FCH)
Event
- NTSB case
- WPR09CA011
- 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-38-112
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-38
- 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
- N2572N
- Operator
- Golden Eagle Enterprises
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Fresno Chandler Executive Airport (FCH), Fresno, CATo Fresno Chandler Executive Airport (FCH), Fresno, CA
- 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 pattern final
- 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
- Collision during takeoff/landing
- 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
- Personnel issues › Action/decision
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
While on final for landing, the landing gear of the airplane struck a semi truck that was traveling on a road perpendicular to the runway at the approach end. The pilot had performed 10 full stop landings at the accident airport and was on approach for the 11th landing when the accident occurred. After impacting the trailer, the airplane landed on its belly and came to rest short of the runway. The pilot stated that the accident could have been prevented had he flown a higher approach. The driver and passenger in the vehicle stated that they had observed the airplane flying toward them and that it appeared low. Even though the airplane seemed low, the vehicle occupants thought it would clear the truck's trailer.
Probable cause
The pilot's failure to maintain a proper glide path while on final approach.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record WPR09CA011
- Event ID
- 20081014X20813
- Case number
- WPR09CA011
- 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: local date, investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 2008-10-12.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 35b3d652890261453deb021a2e977a999fc773528d1716d9d03416f6f5204918; retrieved 2026-09-15T10:27:46.947Z.