CEN10CA375 · Piper PA32 301FT
Piper PA32 301FT · Accident: loss of control on ground during takeoff
From Albuquerque International Sunport (ABQ) to Draughon Miller Central Texas Regional Airport (TPL)
Event
- NTSB case
- CEN10CA375
- 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 PA32 301FT
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA32
- 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
- N106C
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Albuquerque International Sunport (ABQ), Albuquerque, NMTo Draughon Miller Central Texas Regional Airport (TPL), Temple, TX
- 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
- Takeoff
- 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
- Personnel issues › Task performance
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 was taking off to the east with winds at the time of the accident from 060 degrees at 9 knots. The pilot said the airplane made a sudden hard turn to the left just before liftoff. He applied right rudder and right brake but the airplane drifted off of the left side of the runway and the right wing impacted a runway marker sign 130 feet to the left of the runway centerline. The impact caused substantial damage to the right wing, aileron, flap and stabilator. The fuel tank in the right wing ruptured and there was a substantial fuel spill, but no post-impact fire. The pilot and his three passengers were not injured and exited the airplane unassisted. The pilot reported that there was no mechanical malfunction or failure with the airplane. The Federal Aviation Administration inspector who responded to the scene and examined the airplane reported that there were no anomalies with the brake system, nosewheel steering, or flight controls.
Probable cause
The pilot's failure to maintain directional control of the airplane during takeoff.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CEN10CA375
- Event ID
- 20100708X60022
- Case number
- CEN10CA375
- 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: 725d8d19fc216fcf463e4d8f2db4f6d29e03c080802f06448353936bc92c36f2; retrieved 2026-09-15T14:39:14.194Z.