ERA16CA125 · Piper PA 22-108
Piper PA 22-108 · Accident: loss of control on ground during landing
From Lincolnton Lincoln County Regional Airport (IPJ) to Lincolnton Lincoln County Regional Airport (IPJ)
Event
- NTSB case
- ERA16CA125
- 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
- 0
- 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 22-108
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-22
- 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
- N5488Z
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Lincolnton Lincoln County Regional Airport (IPJ), Lincolnton, NCTo Lincolnton Lincoln County Regional Airport (IPJ), Lincolnton, NC
- Aircraft age
- About 54 years (built 1962)
- 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
- Landing · landing roll
- 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 on ground
- 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
- 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 non-certificated pilot/owner of the single engine airplane was conducting a local test flight with a prospective buyer, who held a private pilot certificate. After exiting the airport traffic area and climbing to an altitude of 1,800 feet, the pilot permitted the prospective buyer to manipulate the flight controls. The pilot then reassumed control of the airplane for the return flight to the departure airport. According to the prospective buyer, while on final approach to land on runway 5, he noticed that the airplane was yawed to the left and applied right rudder, but the pilot told him to stay off the controls, which he did for the remainder of the flight. After landing, the airplane veered to the left and departed the left side of the runway; where it struck an embankment, and flipped over. The airplane sustained substantial damage to the wing struts, rudder, aft lower fuselage, firewall, and nose gear assembly. Both occupants stated there were no pre-impact anomalies with the airplane.
Probable cause
The non-certificated pilot's loss of directional control while landing.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ERA16CA125
- Event ID
- 20160308X25235
- Case number
- ERA16CA125
- 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: 2a4eb02b6b241d55d89148b6fcb346903e74a4dc21f3393e9562341297d25240; retrieved 2026-09-16T03:12:29.451Z.