CEN12CA542 · Piper PA-36-285
Taylor Ag Services Piper PA-36-285 · Accident: loss of control in flight during takeoff
From Harvey, ND to Harvey, ND
Event
- NTSB case
- CEN12CA542
- 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-36-285
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-36
- 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
- N204AB
- Operator
- Taylor Ag Services
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Harvey, NDTo Harvey, ND
- 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 137: Agricultural
- 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 in flight
- 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
Prior to taking off on the aerial application flight, the pilot loaded applicant and fuel which, as reported by the pilot, put the airplane slightly over its maximum gross weight. In addition, he checked the automated report for the nearest airplane weather facility, which reported wind from the north at 4 knots. The pilot departed the private strip, a 2,600 foot-long turf and asphalt runway, to the south toward a river. While on the takeoff roll, with a tailwind, the pilot rotated the airplane for takeoff at the usual rotation point. The airplane climbed to about 3 feet then settled back to the runway. With a quarter of the runway remaining, the pilot continued the takeoff, increased flaps, and verified that the throttle and propeller controls were full forward. The pilot again rotated the airplane and was able to climb about 4 feet when the airplane again settled back to the ground. The pilot then dumped the application load and tried to maintain control of the airplane. The airplane continued a short distance to the opposite river bank, impacted terrain, and slid on its belly. The pilot reported that during the preflight checks the airplane had adequate oil and the fuel was sumped of any water. In addition, the pilot reported normal engine instrumentation prior to the takeoff roll.
Probable cause
The pilot’s decision to take off with the airplane over its maximum gross weight on a turf runway and with a tailwind, and his subsequent failure to maintain airplane control.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CEN12CA542
- Event ID
- 20120814X42848
- Case number
- CEN12CA542
- 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 2012-08-08.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 569388bbace7f1eb44b71cbf523607304e3041809e2b88dbcaf92e55a42fd423; retrieved 2026-09-15T19:20:58.001Z.