- Date
- February 6, 1983, 07:00 local (13:00 UTC)
- Place
- St. Joseph, TN
- Injuries
- 1 uninjured
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Phase of flight
- Landing
- Aircraft
- N54244Piper PA-23-250
- Weather
- Instrument (IMC) · Night/dark
- Status
- Completed
- Report
- Approved by Office Director
- FAA report
- 19830206002899A
- Case key
- 6005
From the NTSB’s public API. By law, NTSB reports can’t be used as evidence in lawsuits over the accident.
On this page
Sequence of events
NTSB’s coding before 2008: each occurrence and phase of flight, and the causes and factors under it. The codes are defined in NTSB’s coding manual.
Analysis
The aircraft overran the end of the runway during a night landing in IMC weather. The runway was a private dirt strip. Flight purpose is not known but it is suspected it was a drug smuggling flight. The aircraft landed long on the 2400 foot strip and went off the end across a road, through a fence and into small pine trees before stopping 1200 feet from the end of the runway. Three men in two vehicles followed the aircraft and helped the pilot unload several small brown packages before all of them abandoned the aircraft. The owner in Florida claimed the aircraft was stolen two days prior to accident from a locked hanger. Neither the hanger nor the aircraft showed any signs of forced entry. Also the aircraft had sophisticated equipment on board which would have taken 5 days to install. The owner claimed no knowledge of the equipment.
Aircraft
- Registration
- N54244
- Reported as
- Piper PA-23-250
- Category
- Airplane
- Serial number
- 27-4349
- Airframe hours
- 4,131
- Engine
- Lycoming IO-540-C4B5, 250 horsepower, reciprocating
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Flight
- Personal · Part 91
- Registered owner
- Richard Renner
- Airworthiness certificate
- Standard, Normal
- Last inspection
- Annual · May 7, 1982 · 142 hours before
- Airport
- Circle E, runway 31, 2,400 × ft, dirt
Matched to the registry by N-number and the event date; the registry’s history has gaps, so older matches can be wrong. Compare the reported make and model.
Flight crew
As NTSB recorded them. NTSB leaves out names.
- Role
- Pilot
- Airplane ratings
- Single-engine land
- Medical
- Unknown, Unknown
- Seat
- Left
Weather
- Conditions
- Instrument (IMC) · Night/dark
- Wind
- Calm
- Visibility
- 1 statute miles
- Lowest ceiling
- 500 ft unknown
- Temperature
- 39 °F, dew point 37 °F
- Altimeter
- 29.00 inHg
- Observed at
- MSL, 18 nm away
FAA reports on this event · 1
The FAA’s own accident and incident reports, matched to the aircraft by N-number and date.