- Date
- August 31, 2025, 20:15 local (Sep 1, 2025, 01:15 UTC)
- Place
- Pittsfield, IL · Runway 31
- Injuries
- 2 uninjured
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Phase of flight
- Landing
- Aircraft
- N5714FPiper PA-28-140
- Defining event
- Landing-aborted after touchdown: Wildlife encounter (non-bird)
- Weather
- Visual (VMC) · Night
- Status
- Completed · report January 15, 2026
- Report
- Approved by Office Director
- Investigation class
- Class 4 - Basic report with no Prelim publish
- NTSB office
- Central Region
- Parties
- Federal Aviation Administration - Springfield FSDO
- FAA report
- 20250831014579A
- Case key
- 200914
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
The collision with a deer during the aborted landing in night visual meteorological conditions.
Findings · 3
NTSB’s coded findings. Those marked are part of the probable cause; the rest are factors or other findings. Under each, the cases with the same finding.
Sequence of events
The events NTSB coded, in order, by phase of flight. The defining event is the one that best describes the accident. Under each, the cases with the same event anywhere in their sequence.
Analysis
The flight instructor and the pilot-receiving-instruction were conducting a night landing in visual meteorological conditions when upon touchdown a deer ran across the runway ahead of the airplane. They aborted the landing due to insufficient distance to slow the airplane and avoid the deer. Shortly after liftoff, a second deer attempted to cross the runway and struck the front left side of the airplane. Without sufficient runway remaining to land, the flight instructor continued with the takeoff, entered the traffic pattern, and made an uneventful landing. The flight instructor did not report any preimpact mechanical malfunctions or failures that would have precluded normal operation of the airplane. The airplane’s left wing sustained substantial damage where it struck the deer. The publicly owned airport does not have wildlife fencing installed to exclude deer and other mammals, nor is it required to. The FAA Airport/Facility Directory does include a remark for deer and migratory waterfowl on and in the vicinity of the airport. According to FAA CertAlert No. 16-03, Recommended Wildlife Exclusion Fencing, the installation of a 10-foot-high fence with 3-strand barbed wire outriggers is the best way of keeping deer out of aircraft movement areas.
Aircraft
- Registration
- N5714F
- Reported as
- Piper PA-28-140
- Category
- Airplane
- Serial number
- 28-24928
- Built
- 1968
- Airframe hours
- 4,483.4
- Engine
- Lycoming O-320-E2A, 160 horsepower, reciprocating
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Flight
- Instructional · Part 91
- Operator
- Piston Aviation
- Registered owner
- Future Pilots Fund
- Airworthiness certificate
- Standard, Normal
- Last inspection
- 100 hour · August 13, 2025 · 68 hours before
- Departed
- 1H0 · Saint Louis, MO
- Destination
- PPQ · Pittsfield, IL
- Airport
- PPQ · Pittsfield Penstone Municipal Airport, runway 31, 4,000 × 60 ft, asphalt
- Equipment
- Electronic flight bag or handheld device, ADS-B, Stall warning system
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 · 2
As NTSB recorded them. NTSB leaves out names.
- Role
- Flight instructor
- Age
- 24
- Injuries
- None
- Certificates
- Flight instructor, Commercial
- Airplane ratings
- Multi-engine land, Single-engine land
- Instrument ratings
- Airplane
- Medical
- Class 1, Without waivers/limitations
- Last flight review
- June 28, 2024
- Seat
- Right
- Restraint
- Lap only
- Flight hours
- 989 total · 279.6 in this make and model · 846 as pilot in command · 165.1 in the last 90 days · 74.1 in the last 30 days · 5.9 in the last 24 hours
- Role
- Pilot
- Age
- 33
- Injuries
- None
- Certificate
- Private
- Airplane ratings
- Single-engine land
- Medical
- Class 1, With waivers/limitations
- Last flight review
- January 25, 2025
- Seat
- Left
- Restraint
- Lap only
- Flight hours
- 149 total · 83.2 in this make and model · 100.5 as pilot in command · 39.8 in the last 90 days · 9.5 in the last 30 days · 0 in the last 24 hours
Weather
- Conditions
- Visual (VMC) · Night
- Wind
- 50° at 4 knots
- Visibility
- 10 statute miles
- Lowest ceiling
- None
- Temperature
- 68 °F, dew point 57 °F
- Altimeter
- 30.20 inHg
- Observed at
- KPPQ
- METAR
- KPPQ 010115Z AUTO 05004KT 10SM CLR 20/14 A3020 RMK AO2 T02030141
Docket · 5
The files NTSB released with the investigation on January 15, 2026, on NTSB’s docket system: statements, records, photos and specialists’ reports. 5.1 MB in all.
FAA reports on this event · 1
The FAA’s own accident and incident reports, matched to the aircraft by N-number and date.
Other investigations on N5714F · 1
Matched to the same aircraft by N-number and date.