Chōfu PA-46 crash
Corporate-owned Piper PA-46 · Exceeding of maximum take-off weight, and stall immediately after take-off due to pilot error
From Chōfu Airfield to Ōshima Airport
Narrative check · The NTSB narrative appears to contradict this record's injuries. Values are shown as recorded, not corrected; compare with the narrative.
Event
- NTSB case
- ANC15WA060
- 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
- Unknown · led by another country; figures from NTSB notifications
- Event fatalities
- 3 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- 1
- Occupants
- Unknown
- Survivors
- 3
- InjuriesFatal: death within 30 days. Serious: over 48 hours in hospital within a week, most broken bones, severe bleeding, nerve or organ damage, or serious burns. Minor: anything less. Glossary
- 3
- 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
- Unknown
- WeatherVisual meteorological conditions (VMC): good enough to fly by looking outside. Instrument conditions (IMC): cloud or low visibility, flying by instruments. Glossary
- Not recorded
Piper PA-46
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-46
- 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
- JA4060
- Operator
- Corporate-owned
- Onboard fatalities
- 2
- Route
- From Chōfu AirfieldTo Ōshima Airport
- Aircraft age
- Not recorded
- 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
- Not recorded
- 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
- Unknown or undetermined
- 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
No findings designated as a cause are recorded in the NTSB data yet.
Approximate · Coordinates from the Wikipedia article; not checked against an investigation report.
From the Wikipedia article
The Chōfu PA-46 crash (Chōfu-shi PA-46 tsuiraku jiko) was a Japanese aviation accident on 26 July 2015 (Heisei 27) in which a Piper PA-46 light aircraft crashed into a residential area in Fujimi-chō, Chōfu, Tokyo, immediately after taking off from Chōfu Airfield.
The Fire and Disaster Management Agency calls it the “Crash and fire of a light aircraft in a residential area near Chōfu Airfield, Tokyo”, and the Japan Transport Safety Board of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism calls it the “Light aircraft crash aviation accident in Chōfu, Tokyo”.
The Japan Transport Safety Board of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism, which had been examining the accident, announced the cause of the accident 2 years later, on 18 July 2017 (described below).
Investigation and cause
Initial analysis of the cause
Asked by the media, the aviation commentator Fumio Higuchi, a former All Nippon Airways captain, pointed out: “Judging from the footage posted on video-sharing sites and the low speed of a piston light aircraft, it seems there were only 20 - 30 seconds from take-off to the crash. Perhaps a serious engine problem occurred right after take-off and the aircraft crashed without the margin to avoid the residential area.” Regarding eyewitness reports that “the engine sounded lower than usual and the altitude was lower than normal”, he said: “Normally engine power is set to maximum for take-off, so the engine sound becomes louder. If it was lower than usual, it is possible that engine power had not risen sufficiently.” On the situation at the crash site, he pointed out: “You can see that the roof of a house 2 doors away from the house where the broken aircraft is scattered is badly damaged. Perhaps the main wing struck this roof, the aircraft flipped over and with that momentum hit the house 2 doors further on, and fuel leaked from the fuel tank and started the fire.”
Likewise, the aviation commentator Issei Hideshima analysed video taken by a witness to the accident and pointed out: “After take-off, at the point where engine power should increase, the sound seems not to get louder but to fade away. It is highly likely that the engine stopped for some reason during the climb.” Regarding the fact that the aircraft was found upside down, he said it “appears to have plunged in without time to avoid the houses”, and went on to point out the possibility that a problem other than the engine had also occurred: “Even if the engine had stopped, if it had still been controllable it should have been able to fly a little further.”
The aviation safety consultant Hidetake Sakuma pointed out: “The fact that it took off means there was no problem with the engine up to then. Perhaps the flight control system was poorly maintained.”
Amid these theories attributing the cause to the equipment, such as the engine, the flight control system or maintenance errors, an analysis with the same content as the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism's report 2 years later was published on 27 July 2015 (the day after the accident).
Translated into English with AI assistance from the Japanese Wikipedia article “調布市PA-46墜落事故” (revision 110340213, retrieved 2026-09-19) by its authors, under CC BY-SA 4.0. Extracted as plain text: references, tables, images and some sections are left out; the translation may contain errors, and long articles were cut to their first 700 words. Read the article
NTSB narrative
On July 26, 2015, at 0200 coordinated universal time, a Japanese registered Piper PA46-350P airplane, JA4060, operated by a private individual, impacted a residential area shortly after takeoff from Chofu Airfield, Tokyo, Japan. The pilot, one passenger, and one person on the ground sustained fatal injuries. Three passengers and two people on the ground sustained serious injuries. The airplane was destroyed.
The investigation is under the jurisdiction of the Government of Japan. This report is for information purposes only and contains only information released by or obtained by the Government of Japan. Further information pertaining to this accident may be obtained from:
Director-General Secretariat of the Aircraft and Railway Accidents Investigation Commission Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport
2-1-2, Kasumigaseki, Chiyoda-ku Tokyo 100-8918 Japan
Tel.: (81) 3 5253 8813 E-mail: ARAIC@mlit.go.jp Fax: (81) 3 5253 1677
AFTN: RJTDYAYA
Cable: KOKUKYOKU-TOKYO
Website: http://www.motnet.go.jp/araic/index.html
Verbatim NTSB factual narrative from the NTSB dataset
Sources
Japanese Wikipedia article: 調布市PA-46墜落事故
- Article
- 調布市PA-46墜落事故
- Translation
- Into English with AI assistance; names of linked operators and aircraft types from Wikidata. It may contain errors.
- Revision
- 110340213 · 2026-07-20 · retrieved 2026-09-19
- Wikidata
- Q20816173
- Licence
- Text CC BY-SA 4.0, by the article's authors; Wikidata CC0; town positions GeoNames (CC BY 4.0)
NTSB record ANC15WA060
- Event ID
- 20150730X31026
- Case number
- ANC15WA060
- Dataset
- full-current
- Source SHA-256
- 5cf380f0061817c0331a6b2d8cc7e0ee3a79bea469a1001dc5c10e56f35f5ab3
Where each value comes from
- Record
- ja Wikipedia article "調布市PA-46墜落事故" (page 3253998, revision 110340213), translated into English with AI assistance; merged with NTSB case ANC15WA060 (events / aircraft)
- Date
- Wikipedia infobox: date
- Place and country
- Wikipedia infobox: site
- Map position
- Wikipedia: Wikipedia article coordinates
- Aircraft, operator and route
- Wikipedia infobox: aircraft type, registration, operator, origin and destination; route airports from the linked airport articles' Wikidata codes (OurAirports); gaps and aircraft details from NTSB record ANC15WA060
- Operation
- not stated in the Wikipedia article's infobox or opening paragraph
- Fatalities
- Wikipedia: Wikipedia infobox: aircraft fatalities plus ground fatalities
- Ground fatalities
- Wikipedia: Wikipedia infobox: ground fatalities
- Summary
- Wikipedia infobox: summary
Source notes (2)
- One occurrence in two sources, merged: the Wikipedia article "Chōfu PA-46 crash" and NTSB case ANC15WA060, matched by the same aircraft registration and date. For this event outside the United States Wikipedia's values are used where the two differ; each value names its source.
- No bulk values were replaced by the NTSB case API.