ERA13IA396 · Piper PA-28RT-201
CCM Piper PA-28RT-201 · Incident: flight control system malfunction/failure during takeoff
From Hampton Roads Executive Airport (PVG) to Hampton Roads Executive Airport (PVG)
Event
- NTSB case
- ERA13IA396
- 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
- Incident
- 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-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
- N2091W
- Operator
- CCM
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Hampton Roads Executive Airport (PVG), Chesapeake, VATo Hampton Roads Executive Airport (PVG), Chesapeake, VA
- Aircraft age
- About 34 years (built 1979)
- 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
- Flight control system malfunction/failure
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- None
Cause areas
- Aircraft › Aircraft handling/service
- Aircraft › Aircraft systems
- Personnel issues › Task performance
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot and safety pilot reported that, during takeoff, they heard a loud "pop" as the pilot increased the angle-of-attack to become airborne and that the airplane then pitched down. The airplane became airborne momentarily and then the safety pilot aborted the takeoff. The airplane touched down on the runway in a three-point attitude.
Examination of the airplane revealed that the aft lower stabilator flight control cable's turnbuckle assembly had broken at the aft cable terminal fitting and that the control cable terminal had fractured due to stress-corrosion cracking. Federal Aviation Administration Airworthiness Directive (AD) 2013-02-13 and Piper Service Bulletin (SB) 1245A were issued to address the failure of the control cables. According to the airframe and powerplant mechanic's logbook entry for the most recent annual inspection, which occurred 6 flight hours before the cable failure, he had complied with AD 2013-02-13 by inspecting the cables in accordance with Piper SB 1245A. The SB instructed the mechanic to disassemble the turnbuckle assembly and clean it using a solvent, such as acetone, or a general purpose scouring pad and then to use a 10x magnifier, a mirror, and a suitable light source to inspect each turnbuckle, cable terminal, and adjacent portion of the cable. Any evidence of cracks, cable fraying, or corrosion was cause for replacement.
Further examination of the terminal fitting indicated that it was covered in many areas with deposits that were likely a mix of corrosion products, grease, and dirt, and, therefore, that it had not been cleaned sufficiently to allow for an effective inspection. No scratches were observed on the surface, indicating that a scouring pad had not been used. The deposits observed on the turnbuckle were unable to be readily removed without a scouring pad, indicating that they were likely there longer than the month since the inspection occurred.
Probable cause
Maintenance personnel’s inadequate inspection and compliance with a Federal Aviation Administration airworthiness directive, which resulted in an undetected corroded and cracked stabilator turnbuckle and the subsequent failure of the turnbuckle and loss of elevator control during takeoff.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ERA13IA396
- Event ID
- 20130904X05544
- Case number
- ERA13IA396
- 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, damage. 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: 02085da8543858d513b228cc0dcf3b2463d29c5d0b89fb3d22dd6f8e7691a34d; retrieved 2026-09-15T22:43:25.342Z.