CEN12LA569 · Piper PA28 140
Piper PA28 140 · Accident: collision during takeoff/landing during initial climb
From Donner Field (OH28) to Donner Field (OH28)
Narrative check · The NTSB narrative appears to contradict this record's departure or destination. Values are shown as recorded, not corrected; compare with the narrative.
Event
- NTSB case
- CEN12LA569
- 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 140
- 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
- N1845J
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route Possible conflict
- From Donner Field (OH28), Leesburg, OHTo Donner Field (OH28)
- 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
- Initial climb
- 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
- Personnel issues › Action/decision
- 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 on a 2,100 foot grass runway with a quartering tailwind. The pilot stated that the airplane lifted off and climbed normally until it passed the end of the runway, at which time the engine "coughed" and lost power. A witness stated that the airplane's speed during the takeoff and climb was slow and that the airplane reached an altitude of about 40-50 feet above the runway end. A review of the airplane's takeoff performance data from a hard surface runway showed that the airplane's takeoff distance over a 50-foot obstacle was nearly equal to the runway length for the density altitude at the time of the accident. However, the soft grass runway surface, runway slope, and quartering tailwind present during the accident takeoff would have further lengthened the airplane's takeoff distance. Because of these considerations, the pilot should not have attempted to takeoff on that runway in those conditions.
The airplane's most recent annual maintenance inspection was completed about 5 months (about 7.8 flight hours) before the accident. However, the engine had not been overhauled within the manufacturer's recommended overhaul time of 12 years. Postaccident examination of the airplane revealed a leak from the fuel selector and evidence that one of the magnetos had a preexisting grounding anomaly; both conditions should have been discovered during the annual maintenance inspection. Additionally, the grounded magneto should have been evident to the pilot during the engine run-up. However, these anomalous conditions would not have had a significant effect on the airplane's performance. Examination did not reveal any preimpact mechanical malfunctions or anomalies that would have precluded normal operation.
Probable cause
The pilot's improper preflight planning and decision to attempt a takeoff from a runway that was too short for conditions, which resulted in the airplane settling into terrain.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CEN12LA569
- Event ID
- 20120824X74336
- Case number
- CEN12LA569
- 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: e69f6af47215f0f4409e62928e9c874fb0ed4a098eb8ba28304ac7ac50ff24c6; retrieved 2026-09-15T19:30:06.038Z.