CEN14FA019 · Piper PA 28-140
Piper PA 28-140 · Accident: loss of control in flight while maneuvering
From Searcy Municipal Airport (SRC) to Elk City Regional Business Airport (ELK)
Event
- NTSB case
- CEN14FA019
- 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 28-140
- 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
- N113WS
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Searcy Municipal Airport (SRC), Searcy, ARTo Elk City Regional Business Airport (ELK), Elk City, OK
- Aircraft age
- About 48 years (built 1965)
- 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
- 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
- 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
- Destroyed
Cause areas
- Aircraft › Aircraft oper/perf/capability
- Personnel issues › Action/decision
- Personnel issues › Task performance
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot did not obtain a formal weather briefing before the accident flight nor any flight following or air traffic control services while en route. Radar data indicated that the airplane was traveling toward the destination airport and that radar contact was lost about 29 miles from the accident site. Radar contact was likely lost due to the low altitude at which the airplane was flying. Four witnesses located along the route of flight observed the airplane flying at low altitude and in and out of instrument flight conditions. Two witnesses stated that heavy rain showers existed in the area at the time that they observed the airplane.
Family members reported to the Federal Aviation Administration that the airplane was overdue, and the airplane was subsequently located in a densely wooded area. Tree strikes were found at the accident site consistent with the airplane contacting the trees in a straight-and-level attitude. All of the airplane's major components were accounted for at the accident site. No preimpact airframe or engine anomalies were noted that would have precluded normal operation. A review of weather data for the time and area surrounding the accident revealed low visibility with moderate to heavy rain. The pilot likely flew the airplane at low altitude to maintain visual flight and subsequently flew into an area of known rain with reduced visibility, which resulted in his inability to see and maintain clearance from trees.
Probable cause
The pilot’s lack of weather planning and his continued flight into an area of known rain with reduced visibility and his subsequent failure to maintain clearance with trees.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CEN14FA019
- Event ID
- 20131024X65945
- Case number
- CEN14FA019
- 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. 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: 99b9fdc310bf8aa26091cbb9a16d979456eebd19d92db168180f06cee6fdd52f; retrieved 2026-09-14T16:05:59.645Z.