CEN20LA127 · Piper PA28R 180
Piper PA28R 180 · Accident: loss of control in flight on approach
From Muskogee-Davis Regional Airport (MKO) to Clermont County Airport (I69)
Event
- NTSB case
- CEN20LA127
- 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
- Instrument Meteorological Cond
Piper PA28R 180
- 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
- N3943T
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Muskogee-Davis Regional Airport (MKO), Muskogee, OKTo Clermont County Airport (I69), Batavia, OH
- Aircraft age
- About 53 years (built 1967)
- 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 initial 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
- 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
- Destroyed
Cause areas
- Aircraft › Aircraft oper/perf/capability
- Environmental issues › Conditions/weather/phenomena
- Personnel issues › Psychological
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, not marked as estimated; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The instrument-rated pilot was on the final segment of an instrument flight rules (IFR) flight in dark night instrument meteorological conditions (IMC). After being cleared for an RNAV approach to his intended destination, the pilot made several course deviations inbound to the initial approach fix. The pilot informed air traffic control (ATC) that he was experiencing autopilot problems, "heavy turbulence," and "heavy downdrafts." Radar and automated dependent surveillance-broadcast data showed the airplane enter a rapidly descending left turn. ATC issued a low-altitude alert to the pilot and advised him to climb to 4,000 ft immediately. The pilot did not respond, and there were no further communications from the pilot. Radar contact was lost as the airplane descended through 1,400 ft.
The airplane wreckage was found severely fragmented amidst a heavily wooded area. Examinations of the airframe, flight controls, and engine did not reveal any pre-impact mechanical anomalies. The airplane was flying in an area of a stationary frontal system, which resulted in an extensive area of IFR conditions, low ceilings, low visibilities, drizzle, and rain. The weather in the accident area was conducive to low-level windshear and convective turbulence at the time of the accident. There was no record of the pilot obtaining a preflight weather briefing, and his flight plan did not list an alternate airport. The pilot’s report of heavy turbulence and downdrafts was consistent with the existing weather conditions. It is likely when the pilot encountered the turbulence and wind shear in dark night conditions, he became spatially disoriented and lost control of the airplane.
Probable cause
The pilot’s encounter with convective turbulence and low-level wind shear in dark night instrument meteorological conditions that resulted in spatial disorientation and the loss of airplane control.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CEN20LA127
- Event ID
- 20200319X90956
- Case number
- CEN20LA127
- 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, cause areas. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 2020-03-19.
- API snapshot SHA-256: d7fe6d8f68687a8b18f8a8c337dcb96c1f918f3c93b634bf4120a3ea6d4087b3; retrieved 2026-09-15T07:12:52.020Z.