WPR19FA042 · Piper PA-24-250
Piper PA-24-250 · Accident: loss of control in flight during initial climb
From Aberdeen Municipal Airport (U36) to Vernal, UT
Event
- NTSB case
- WPR19FA042
- 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
- Visual Meteorological Cond
Piper PA-24-250
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-24
- 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
- N6283P
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Aberdeen Municipal Airport (U36), Aberdeen, IDTo Vernal, UT
- Aircraft age
- About 59 years (built 1959)
- 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
- Initial climb
- 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
- Substantial
Cause areas
- Aircraft › Aircraft power plant
- Aircraft › Aircraft systems
- Personnel issues › Psychological
- Personnel issues › Task performance
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
Security camera video captured the airplane during the initial climb after takeoff. The video showed that as the airplane entered the view of the camera, it appeared to be in a shallow climb; however, about 14 seconds later, the airplane descended in a near vertical manner, out of view of the camera. The airplane impacted open terrain about 1,850 ft west of the departure end of the runway. Examination of the airframe revealed no mechanical anomalies that would have precluded normal operation; however, the left fuel selector valve was in the left wingtip tank position, and the right selector valve was in in a position between the right main fuel tank and right wingtip tank position. The Airplane Flight Manual Supplement for the wingtip fuel tank installation stated that the wingtip tank fuel was to be used in level flight only. It is likely that because of the placement of the fuel port in the wingtip fuel tanks, when the airplane was in a climb attitude, the fuel may not have reached the fuel port in the tank. As a result, the pilot’s improper positioning of the fuel valves could have led to fuel starvation during the takeoff climb and resulted in a loss of engine power. Additionally, examination of the engine revealed that both magnetos were found in poor condition and showed evidence of little maintenance being performed. The left magneto drive shaft would not rotate. Disassembly of the left magneto revealed excessive wear on the bearing race that is attached to the drive shaft. The excessive wear allowed the magnets to contact the magneto housing, which resulted in the magneto being grounded, thus inoperative. The inoperative magneto would have partially reduced engine power. It is likely that the pilot experienced a loss of engine power to some degree during takeoff initial climb and his attention could have been diverted as part of troubleshooting the loss of engine power. The pilot's diverted attention most likely allowed for the airplane to exceed its critical angle of attack, resulting in a stall and subsequent spin at an altitude too low for recovery.
Probable cause
The pilot's diverted attention during the takeoff climb due to a loss of engine power, which resulted in the airplane’s exceedance of the critical angle of attack and subsequent stall/spin.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record WPR19FA042
- Event ID
- 20181217X22552
- Case number
- WPR19FA042
- 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: dff4f6ff5725dd444aaa0e94a19c0fcad449cd26712345b14d16b926eb762f53; retrieved 2026-09-15T06:52:03.679Z.