ERA13FA144 · Piper PA-28RT-201
Piper PA-28RT-201 · Accident: VFR encounter with IMC during initial climb
From Tampa North Aero Park Airport (X39) to Crossville, TN
Event
- NTSB case
- ERA13FA144
- 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
- 1 · 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
- Instrument Meteorological Cond
Piper PA-28RT-201
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-28
- 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
- N2895U
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Tampa North Aero Park Airport (X39), Lutz, FLTo Crossville, TN
- 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
- VFR encounter with IMC
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Destroyed
Cause areas
- Environmental issues › Conditions/weather/phenomena
- Personnel issues › Action/decision
- Personnel issues › Psychological
- 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 had recently purchased the airplane, and did not possess an instrument rating. Additionally, there was no record of the pilot obtaining a weather briefing from flight service or direct user access terminal before departing on a long cross-country flight; the ceiling at the departure airport ranged from 400 feet to 600 feet overcast. The wreckage was located the following day about 3 miles from the departure airport. Radar data revealed that the airplane flew for about 2 minutes after takeoff, with varying headings and altitudes, before beginning a left descending turn near the accident site. The majority of wreckage had been consumed by a postcrash fire and examination of the wreckage did not reveal any preimpact mechanical malfunctions.
Given the low-visibility conditions, the pilot's lack of an instrument rating and instrument proficiency, and the radar data showing varying altitudes and headings shortly after takeoff, it is likely that the pilot experienced spatial disorientation and a subsequent loss of control.
Toxicological testing of the pilot revealed therapeutic levels of a prescription pain medication (Hydrocodone). The investigation could not determine if the pain medication was impairing at the time. Further, the circumstances of the accident are more consistent with spatial disorientation rather than impairment.
Probable cause
The noninstrument-rated pilot’s decision to attempt a visual flight rules flight in instrument meteorological conditions, which resulted in spatial disorientation and a loss of aircraft control. Contributing to the accident was the pilot’s lack of instrument experience.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ERA13FA144
- Event ID
- 20130225X60241
- Case number
- ERA13FA144
- 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: 5a23651fedb3b157991593e9ae09ad8959727eee18a514260e62fd3e751e225b; retrieved 2026-09-14T15:53:30.116Z.