ERA24FA026 · Piper PA-32-300
Piper PA-32-300 · Accident: loss of control in flight en route
From Rickenbacker International Airport (LCK) to Eugene F. Kranz Toledo Express Airport (TOL)
Event
- NTSB case
- ERA24FA026
- 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
- 2 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- 0
- 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-32-300
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-32
- 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
- N44601
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Rickenbacker International Airport (LCK), Columbus, OHTo Eugene F. Kranz Toledo Express Airport (TOL), Toledo, OH
- Aircraft age
- About 49 years (built 1974)
- 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
- En route · cruise
- 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
- Not determined › Not determined
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
Performance analysis of ADS-B data from the accident flight showed that about 20 minutes after departing, and while flying at an altitude of about 6,000 ft msl, the airplane’s speed began increasing, reaching a maximum of about 125 kts. After some subsequent variation between a low of 101 kts and a high of 120 kts, the airplane descended at a rate of 1,000 ft/min and an airspeed near 100 kts before the data ended. While the airplane’s descent and deceleration indicated a reduction in total energy consistent with a loss of thrust, it’s performance and speed were not consistent with a total loss of engine power, based on the airplane’s stated glide performance. Shortly before the airplane impacted terrain, a witness described that he heard the airplane flying in the distance and that the engine sounded like it was oscillating. He looked up and saw the airplane, before it began a left circling turn, with a “white mist” trailing it. He further stated that the engine “cut out” and the airplane went “nose down” and impacted the ground. Additionally, a residential video doorbell recorded the sound of the airplane before impact, and a sound spectrum analysis of the engine/propeller sound revealed that the engine rpm likely exceeded the rated speed of 2,700 rpm during the descent. Postaccident examination of the wreckage revealed that a post-impact fire destroyed most of the airframe. The wreckage displayed damage consistent with the airplane having impacted the ground at the conclusion of a near vertical descent. Flight control continuity was established to all primary flight controls through frayed cables and fractured bell cranks, and no evidence was found to suggest that there was a mechanical malfunction or failure of the airplane’s flight controls. Examination of the engine, which was limited by the extent of the thermal and impact-related damage, showed no evidence of any preimpact mechanical malfunctions or failures. Based on the available information, the reason for the airplane’s descent and impact with terrain could not be determined.
Probable cause
A descent and impact with terrain for undetermined reasons.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ERA24FA026
- Event ID
- 20231031193330
- Case number
- ERA24FA026
- 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, 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: 499844ffd65c9c498d10ad6b624301c8f93a3976bffcee9769ce87797983508f; retrieved 2026-09-15T08:07:45.875Z.