CEN20LA118 · Piper PA32R 301T
Piper PA32R 301T · Accident: collision with terrain/object (non-CFIT) on approach
From Purdue University Airport (LAF) to Jasper County Airport (RZL)
Event
- NTSB case
- CEN20LA118
- 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
- Instrument Meteorological Cond
Piper PA32R 301T
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA32
- 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
- N599ST
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Purdue University Airport (LAF), LaFayette, INTo Jasper County Airport (RZL), Rensselaer, IN
- Aircraft age
- About 15 years (built 2005)
- 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 missed 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
- Collision with terrain/object (non-CFIT)
- 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, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The non-instrument rated pilot planned a cross-country flight in instrument meteorological conditions. The pilot obtained weather information and filed an instrument flight rules (IFR) flight plan through his on-line weather/flight planning account the day of the accident.
Air traffic control data indicated that the flight and initial portion of the instrument approach proceeded normally. Position data revealed that the airplane proceeded inbound and descended as expected along the assigned approach course. The airplane passed the runway approach threshold at an altitude of about 300 ft above ground level (agl) and entered a gradual left turn; however, the established descent continued. The final data point depicted the airplane about 0.14 mile east of the runway, about 100 ft agl.
The pilot’s memory of the instrument approach was vague due to his injuries; however, he stated that he was unable to see the runway and decided to execute a missed approach. At some point, he either made a “bad input” into the autopilot or the autopilot commanded a slight turn or descent.
The accident site was located immediately southeast of the final position data point. A postimpact fire destroyed much of the airplane. A postaccident examination did not identify any preimpact abnormities that would have contributed to the accident.
The instrument approach procedure allowed for descent as low as 250 ft above the runway elevation and required 1-3/8 to 1 mile flight visibility to land depending on the capabilities of the airplane. Just before the accident the automated weather reporting station recorded calm winds, one-half mile visibility in fog, and an overcast ceiling at 200 ft above ground level.
The pilot held a private pilot certificate with a single-engine land airplane rating; however, he did not have an instrument rating. The accident was consistent with the non-instrument rated pilot’s loss of control during a go-around attempt after conducting an instrument approach in weather conditions that were below minimums.
Probable cause
The non-instrument rated pilot’s failure to establish a climb while initiating a missed approach after conducting an instrument approach below weather minimums.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CEN20LA118
- Event ID
- 20200311X01045
- Case number
- CEN20LA118
- 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, cause areas. 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: 8671a8fc39edb8847945e98388cb1ccba0cd7e711b58c9ffefcc8b960398a249; retrieved 2026-09-16T11:17:59.081Z.