Star Marianas Air Piper PA32 - 300 accident
Piper PA32 - 300 · Accident: controlled flight into terrain/object (CFIT) while maneuvering
From Francisco Manglona Borja / Tinian International Airport (PGWT) to Saipan International Airport (PGSN)
Event
- NTSB case
- WPR14LA007
- 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
- 3 · 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
- Charter & commuter
- 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 PA32 - 300
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA32
- 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
- N4089W
- Operator
- Star Marianas Air
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Francisco Manglona Borja / Tinian International Airport (PGWT), Tinian IslandTo Saipan International Airport (PGSN), Obyan
- Aircraft age
- About 46 years (built 1967)
- 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 135: Air Taxi & Commuter
- 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
- Maneuvering
- 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
- Controlled flight into terrain/object (CFIT)
- 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
- Aircraft › Aircraft oper/perf/capability
- Environmental issues › Conditions/weather/phenomena
- 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
During a night visual flight rules (VFR) cross-country flight, the pilot encountered a rain shower that reduced the cloud ceiling and visibility, so he then attempted to return to the departure airport. While maneuvering, the airplane descended and impacted terrain. A witness estimated that the airplane's altitude was less than 500 feet. He saw the airplane make a sharp left turn and then fly out of his view and then he heard the sound of a crash. Physical evidence observed at the accident site was consistent with controlled flight into terrain. No evidence was found of any preimpact mechanical discrepancies that would have precluded normal operation of the airplane. Damage to the propeller blades was consistent with the engine developing power at impact. It is likely that the pilot attempted to maintain VFR flight by descending to remain below the clouds and was unable to see and avoid the terrain due to dark night conditions.
Probable cause
The pilot’s failure to maintain terrain clearance while maneuvering at low altitude in dark night conditions.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record WPR14LA007
- Event ID
- 20131005X30119
- Case number
- WPR14LA007
- 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: 80e33d9590d606464d105ba62afbc88892d24c299c8bc45a5a2278d8e5a48834; retrieved 2026-09-14T16:04:54.726Z.