- Date
- October 18, 2014, 10:30 local (14:30 UTC)
- Place
- Everglades City, FL
- Injuries
- 1 uninjured
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Phase of flight
- Landing
- Aircraft
- N254WMPiper PA-24-260
- Defining event
- Landing-flare/touchdown: Landing area overshoot
- Weather
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Status
- Completed · report January 12, 2015
- Report
- Approved by Office Director
- NTSB office
- Eastern Region Aviation
- Parties
- FAA/FSDO
- FAA report
- 20141018018889A
- Case key
- 90272
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 pilot's improper approach to landing and his failure to perform a go-around, which resulted in a runway overshoot, runway excursion, and collision with vegetation and water.
Findings · 4
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
According to the pilot, the flight was uneventful; however, as he flared the airplane in ground effect, it floated and overran the runway coming to rest inverted, in about 6 feet of water. He was unable to recall if he applied power to the engine in order to perform a go-around. An eyewitness reported that the airplane's landing gear did not make contact with the runway surface and subsequently contacted mangrove vegetation at the departure end of the runway prior to the airplane nosing over into the water. The airplane sustained substantial damage to the left wing. The pilot reported no pre-impact mechanical malfunctions or abnormalities with the airplane that would have precluded normal operation.
Factual narrative
According to the pilot, the flight was uneventful; however, as he flared the airplane in ground effect, it floated and overran the runway coming to rest inverted, in about 6 feet of water. He was unable to recall if he applied power to the engine in order to perform a go-around. An eyewitness reported that the airplane's landing gear did not make contact with the runway surface and subsequently contacted mangrove vegetation at the departure end of the runway prior to the airplane nosing over into the water. The airplane sustained substantial damage to the left wing. The pilot reported no pre-impact mechanical malfunctions or abnormalities with the airplane that would have precluded normal operation.
Aircraft
- Registration
- N254WM
- Reported as
- Piper PA-24-260
- Category
- Airplane
- Serial number
- 24-4167
- Built
- 1965
- Airframe hours
- 5,825
- Engine
- Lycoming IO-540-D4A5, 260 horsepower, reciprocating
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Flight
- Personal · Part 91
- Airworthiness certificate
- Standard, Normal
- Last inspection
- Annual · December 1, 2013
- Departed
- APF · Naples, FL
- Destination
- X01 · Everglades City, FL
- Airport
- X01 · Everglades Airpark, runway 15, 2,400 × 60 ft, asphalt
- Equipment
- Stall warning system, Auto-pilot
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
- 64
- Injuries
- None
- Certificate
- Private
- Airplane ratings
- Single-engine land
- Instrument ratings
- Airplane
- Medical
- Class 3, With waivers/limitations
- Last flight review
- November 16, 2012
- Seat
- Left
- Restraint
- Lap only
- Flight hours
- 2,250 total · 2,000 in this make and model · 2,250 as pilot in command · 5 in the last 90 days
Weather
- Conditions
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Wind
- Calm
- Visibility
- 10 statute miles
- Lowest ceiling
- None
- Temperature
- 79 °F, dew point 68 °F
- Altimeter
- 30.00 inHg
- Observed at
- KAPF, 28 nm away
Docket · 5
The files NTSB released with the investigation on December 29, 2014, on NTSB’s docket system: statements, records, photos and specialists’ reports. 3.1 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.