ERA19FA170 · Piper PA 30
Piper PA 30 · Accident: birdstrike on approach
From Key West International Airport (EYW) to Naples Municipal Airport (APF)
Event
- NTSB case
- ERA19FA170
- 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 30
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-30
- 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
- N7650Y
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Key West International Airport (EYW), Key West, FLTo Naples Municipal Airport (APF), Naples, FL
- Aircraft age
- About 54 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 · IFR final approach
- 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
- Birdstrike
- 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 structures
- Environmental issues › Physical environment
- Personnel issues › Physical
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
While on approach to the destination airport in visual meteorological conditions, the airplane deviated unannounced from its intended flight path, descended, and impacted the ground. Postaccident examination of the airframe, flight controls, engines, engine systems, and propellers revealed no evidence of preimpact failure or malfunction. Remains of a 3.8-pound Black Vulture was found in the wreckage. A rear seat headrest and two inflatable lift vests located about 440 ft from the main wreckage were found to contain either DNA and/or microscopic feathers from a Black Vulture. Because the Black Vulture was located among the wreckage and because the airplane’s flight path deviation was unannounced, it is likely that the Black Vulture directly impacted and then penetrated the windshield in front of the pilot's position, which incapacitated him, resulting in an uncontrolled descent. The airplane was certificated in accordance with Civil Air Regulation 3, which specified no minimum standard for window or windshield structure strength, or bird penetration.
Probable cause
Incapacitation of the pilot due to a birdstrike through the windshield in front of the pilot's position, while on approach to land.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ERA19FA170
- Event ID
- 20190511X74832
- Case number
- ERA19FA170
- 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: ba9fc14f6f42e8854b70ae7e0c28eea3582f18c888ea7fffe87c4d3184a42d3e; retrieved 2026-09-15T06:57:55.056Z.