WPR23LA205 · Piaggio Aero Industries SPA P180
Piaggio Aero Industries SPA P180 · Accident: collision during takeoff/landing
From an unrecorded airport to Cabo San Lucas International Airport (MMSL)
Event
- NTSB case
- WPR23LA205
- 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
- Event fatalities
- Unknown
- 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
Piaggio Aero Industries SPA P180
- Aircraft type
- Piaggio Aero P180
- 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
- N327A
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo Cabo San Lucas International Airport (MMSL), Cabo San Lucas
- Aircraft age
- About 15 years (built 2008)
- 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
- Collision during takeoff/landing
- 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 systems
- Personnel issues › Action/decision
- 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 pilot reported that during the takeoff roll, shortly after rotation, he cycled the gear up. The airplane then descended and contacted the runway, which resulted in substantial damage to the lower fuselage. The flap control lever and the flaps were found in the “UP” position following the accident. Review of the Airplane Flight Manual (AFM) directed the flaps to be set to MID during the before taxi check and to check flaps MID during the before takeoff check. The AFM ALSO stated, in part, “No takeoff authorized without flaps, or with non-symmetrical flap configuration or annunciated flap asymmetry.” The pilot said he could not recall setting the flaps to “MID” position prior to takeoff. The pilot reported that there were no mechanical malfunctions or failures with the airplane that would have precluded normal operation.
Probable cause
The pilot’s failure to complete required preflight checklist items and properly configure the flaps for takeoff.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record WPR23LA205
- Event ID
- 20230601192276
- Case number
- WPR23LA205
- 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: 1bcc695a9f3e4a76f3983c7134979e236f528fb60f4c41549287f5adabcbe7a8; retrieved 2026-09-16T17:40:01.540Z.