- Date
- June 9, 1990, 15:00 local (19:00 UTC)
- Place
- Farmington, MD
- Injuries
- 1 minor, 1 uninjured
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Phase of flight
- Landing
- Aircraft
- N3456KPiper PA-28-140
- Weather
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Status
- Completed · report December 14, 1992
- Report
- Approved by Office Director
- FAA report
- 19900609019469A
- Case key
- 11599
From the NTSB’s public API. By law, NTSB reports can’t be used as evidence in lawsuits over the accident.
On this page
Probable cause
Student pilot's misjudged approach to landing and the instructor's inadequate supervision.
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
After a brief local flight, the instructor and student pilot returned to the airport to practice landings. They were training with several of the flight instruments covered, including the airspeed indicator and the vertical velocity indicator. The instructor pilot stated that the student allowed the airplane to get too low and slow during the approach. The instructor stated that as he reached forward to take over the controls, the airplane encountered a downdraft and sank into the ground. The airplane impacted an embankment short of the approach end of the runway.
Aircraft
- Registration
- N3456K
- Reported as
- Piper PA-28-140
- Category
- Airplane
- Serial number
- 28-23564
- Airframe hours
- 2,072
- Engine
- Lycoming O-320-E2A, 150 horsepower, reciprocating
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Flight
- Instructional · Part 91
- Registered owner
- David J. Colatriano
- Last inspection
- Annual · January 26, 1990 · 39 hours before
- Airport
- IW6 · Rising Sun, runway 20, 1,640 × 75 ft, grass/turf
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
- Age
- 69
- Certificates
- Flight instructor, Commercial
- Airplane ratings
- Single-engine land, Single-engine sea
- Instrument ratings
- Airplane
- Medical
- Class 2, Valid Medical--w/ waivers/lim
- Seat
- Right
- Flight hours
- 10,208 total · 155 in this make and model · 56 in the last 90 days · 23 in the last 30 days · 3 in the last 24 hours
Weather
- Conditions
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Wind
- 250° at 10 knots, gusting 15
- Visibility
- 15 statute miles
- Lowest ceiling
- None
- Temperature
- 88 °F, dew point 66 °F
- Altimeter
- 29.00 inHg
- Observed at
- 1LG
FAA reports on this event · 1
The FAA’s own accident and incident reports, matched to the aircraft by N-number and date.