CEN19LA051 · Piper PA 23 Undesignat
Piper PA 23 Undesignat · Accident during initial climb
From Beaver Island Airport (SJX) to Fitch H Beach Airport (FPK)
Event
- NTSB case
- CEN19LA051
- 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 23 Undesignat
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-23
- 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
- N2146P
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Beaver Island Airport (SJX), Beaver Island, MITo Fitch H Beach Airport (FPK), Charlotte, MI
- Aircraft age
- About 62 years (built 1956)
- 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
- Unknown or undetermined
- 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 › Task performance
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, not marked as estimated; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The instrument, multi-engine rated private pilot was departing into dark night visual meteorological conditions at the time of the accident. The airport was located in an area with minimal ground lighting with no discernable horizon visible after takeoff. Witnesses heard the airplane take off toward the west and subsequently turn to the north. They described the sound of the engines as "very loud." One witness added that the engines seemed to be operating normally. Another witness noted that the sound changed to a lower pitch similar to when a pilot transitions to climb power after takeoff. The sound ended abruptly when the airplane impacted a wooded area about 1/3 mile from the airport on a north-northeasterly heading. Examination of the airframe and engines did not reveal any anomalies consistent with a preimpact failure or malfunction.
It is possible that the pilot experienced some level spatial disorientation which led to a loss of control and impact with the trees and terrain. However, it is also possible that the pilot became distracted configuring the airplane for climb during the initial turn after takeoff which led to the airplane entering an inadvertent descent and controlled flight into terrain. This scenario is consistent with the witness statement noting a transition to climb power immediately after takeoff. In addition, the earwitness reports did not describe a typical loss-of-control event. The lack of a visible horizon due to the dark night lighting conditions and lack of ground lights in the vicinity of the airport would have contributed to either scenario.
Probable cause
The pilot's failure to maintain a positive rate of climb after takeoff which resulted in an impact with trees and terrain. Contributing to the accident was the pilot's inability to see a visible horizon due to the dark night lighting conditions and limited ground lights in the vicinity of the airport.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CEN19LA051
- Event ID
- 20181231X45242
- Case number
- CEN19LA051
- 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: local date, investigation status, coordinates. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 2018-12-31.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 067ce1e424eb2a9a0f636f37f87472deb183f5dd29f01138afe925b59ae415fb; retrieved 2026-09-15T06:52:38.074Z.