ERA14CA037 · Piper PA 28-150
Piper PA 28-150 · Accident on approach
From Northampton Airport (7B2) to Parlin Field (2B3)
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
- ERA14CA037
- 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 PA 28-150
- 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
- N5873W
- Operator
- Bret Lukezic
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route Narrative disagrees
- From Northampton Airport (7B2), Northhampton, MATo Parlin Field (2B3), Newport, NH
- 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
- Approach · VFR pattern final
- 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
- Miscellaneous/other
- 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
- Aircraft › Aircraft oper/perf/capability
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
According to the pilot, he learned that runway 36 at destination airport was closed and proceeded with his departure. After an uneventful flight, while making radio calls to the destination airport, the airport manager reported that runway 30 was open and provided its length, 1,700 feet. The pilot entered the traffic pattern for the runway and configured the airplane for a short approach. Anticipating an uphill landing, the pilot misjudged the beginning of runway 30 as it was lower in elevation than he expected. He remarked that he was high and fast on the final approach leg and could not perform a go-around due to tall trees at the end of the runway. After the airplane touched down, the pilot applied brakes; however, the airplane slid across the grass strip. He then guided the airplane to the right to avoid trees, but the airplane continued until the left wing impacted a tree and came to rest. A postaccident examination by a Federal Aviation Administration inspector revealed substantial damage to the left wing. The pilot reported no preaccident mechanical malfunctions or failures that would have precluded normal operation.
Probable cause
The pilot's incorrect glide path, which resulted in a landing area overshoot and a runway excursion.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ERA14CA037
- Event ID
- 20131105X95451
- Case number
- ERA14CA037
- 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: d9de3f3953d4d46215c11a37ba757014fb1d015a6f7d41ef381798a2f67e6aa8; retrieved 2026-09-15T23:05:13.525Z.