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ERA10CA411 · Piper PA28 161

9 Aug 2010 · Marshfield, MA, United States

Shoreline Aviation Piper PA28 161 · Accident: ground collision while taxiing

From Marshfield Municipal George Harlow Field (GHG) to Marshfield Municipal George Harlow Field (GHG)

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Event

NTSB case
ERA10CA411
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 PA28 161

Aircraft type
Piper PA28
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
N2150F
Onboard fatalities
Unknown
Route
From Marshfield Municipal George Harlow Field (GHG), Marshfield, MATo Marshfield Municipal George Harlow Field (GHG), Marshfield, MA
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
Taxi · to runway
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
Ground collision
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

  • Environmental issues › Physical environment
  • Personnel issues › Action/decision

Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.

NTSB narrative

According to the pilot, he noticed during preflight planning that there was a Notice to Airmen in effect for taxiway construction at the departure airport. He taxied to the runway for takeoff and approached the area of construction, where he observed vehicles parked off the edge of the taxiway. The pilot stated that he was scanning the engine instruments and dialing in a radio frequency when he felt a "jolt." The pilot shut down the airplane and exited, and observed that the airplane's left wing had contacted a vehicle belonging to one of the construction workers. The left wing sustained substantial damage. Other workers at the site stated that their rule was to park their vehicles behind the taxiway lights, in order to leave adequate room for aircraft on the taxiway. The pilot stated that there were no mechanical malfunctions or anomalies with the airplane, and that he was taxiing on the taxiway centerline when the impact occurred.

Probable cause

The pilot's failure to maintain clearance from a vehicle while taxiing. Contributing to the accident was his inadequate visual lookout.

Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset

Sources

NTSB record ERA10CA411
Event ID
20100810X00613
Case number
ERA10CA411
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: 9522084f8c9c90e0464fa12a8d6e49ccbedff4dafbdbf120eeb9f464848812d8; retrieved 2026-09-15T14:49:02.741Z.