WPR24LA268 · Piper PA-34-220T
Piper PA-34-220T · Accident: abnormal runway contact during takeoff
Event
- NTSB case
- WPR24LA268
- 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
Piper PA-34-220T
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-34
- 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
- N4145B
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo not recorded
- Aircraft age
- About 25 years (built 1999)
- 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 · rejected 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
- Abnormal runway contact
- 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 pilot reported that the accident flight was the first flight since the airplane had undergone a recent annual inspection. During the preflight inspection, the pilot conducted a functional check of the stabilator trim with the electric trim control but did not visually verify the stabilator trim position. During the takeoff roll, the pilot noted an anomaly with the stabilator and aborted the takeoff shortly after rotation. During the landing, the airplane porpoised several times and the nose landing gear collapsed.
Postaccident examination of the airplane revealed that the stabilator trim wheel indicator was found in the full nose-down position. Flight control continuity was established from the cockpit flight controls to the respective flight control surfaces. Binding was noted when using the stabilator trim wheel and force was needed to rotate the stabilator trim control wheel to the natural position. The examination of the stabilator trim shaft revealed a lack of lubrication and excessive wear on the upper- and lower-barrel mount bearings.
The mechanic who conducted the annual inspection reported that no anomalies were noted with the flight controls or the stabilator trim controls. The mechanic reported that he moved the stabilator trim controls to the full nose up position, lubricated the stabilator trim shaft, and then ran the stabilator trim to the full nose down position. During the lubrication of the stabilator trim controls, the mechanic operated the controls while the apprentice lubricated the stabilator trim shaft. However, the apprentice who assisted in the annual inspection reported that he did not recall lubricating the stabilator trim controls. The binding and lack of lubrication on the stabilator trim shaft indicated that the inspection and the lubrication was not conducted in accordance with the manufacturer’s maintenance manual. The anomaly noted in the stabilator by the pilot was likely the trim position being in the full nose-down position and not in the neutral position as per the pilot’s operating handbook.
Probable cause
The pilot’s improper preflight inspection of the stabilator trim position, which resulted in a porpoised landing. Contributing to the accident was the maintenance personnel’s improper maintenance of the stabilator trim shaft.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record WPR24LA268
- Event ID
- 20240805194853
- Case number
- WPR24LA268
- 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: 8c792edb4d08867c1361d355d8e65f5c6b96b282bbf1c0d67247cc9dc298bd30; retrieved 2026-09-16T19:08:14.531Z.