GAA19CA511 · Piper PA28 235
N8619W Piper PA28 235 · Accident: loss of control in flight during takeoff
From Lake Havasu City Airport (HII) to Prescott Regional Airport - Ernest A. Love Field (PRC)
Event
- NTSB case
- GAA19CA511
- 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 PA28 235
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA28
- 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
- N8619W
- Operator
- N8619W
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Lake Havasu City Airport (HII), Lake Havasu, AZTo Prescott Regional Airport - Ernest A. Love Field (PRC), Prescott, AZ
- Aircraft age
- About 56 years (built 1963)
- 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
- Takeoff
- 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 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 flight instructor reported that, during a soft-field takeoff with the student pilot at the flight controls, the airplane was in ground effect and yawed left with a high angle of attack. He added that, as the student was correcting, a wind gust from the right caused the airplane to drift left and put the airplane into a "cross controlled situation." The instructor attempted to assume control of the airplane, but the student did not relinquish control of the airplane. The instructor reported that he was unable to overpower the student and became concerned that the airplane was not producing enough lift and would aerodynamically stall or spin. The instructor pushed forward hard on the yoke to prevent a stall, and the airplane impacted terrain off the side of the runway about midfield.
The airplane sustained substantial damage to the fuselage and the left and right wings.
The instructor reported that there were no preaccident mechanical failures or malfunctions with the airplane that would have precluded normal operation.
The student did not submit a written statement as requested.
An automated weather observation station located 14 miles northeast of the accident site reported that, about the time of the accident, the wind was from 210° at 8 knots and variable between 180° and 240°. The airplane was departing from runway 14.
The Federal Aviation Administration's Airplane Flying Handbook, FAA-H-8083-3B, contained a subsection titled, "Soft/Rough-Field Takeoff and Climb," which stated, in part, the following:
An attempt to climb prematurely or too steeply may cause the airplane to settle back to the surface as a result of the loss of ground effect. During the transition out of the ground effect area, the pilot should not attempt to climb out of ground effect before reaching the sufficient climb airspeed, as this may result in the airplane being unable to climb further, even with full power applied. Therefore, it is essential that the airplane remain in ground effect until at least VX is reached.
Probable cause
The student pilot's improper pitch and lateral control during a soft-field takeoff, which resulted in impact with terrain. Contributing to the accident was the student pilot's failure to relinquish control of the airplane to the instructor.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record GAA19CA511
- Event ID
- 20190826X31624
- Case number
- GAA19CA511
- 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: 81f48f0e937a0473abb4f57c1a0aebabdec41c7885f5874221d60e6984d8fd90; retrieved 2026-09-16T09:52:28.340Z.