- Date
- June 7, 2024, 09:00 local (13:00 UTC)
- Place
- Vero Beach, FL
- Injuries
- 2 uninjured
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Phase of flight
- Prior to flight
- Aircraft
- N287NDPiper PA28R
- Defining event
- Prior to flight: Aircraft structural failure
- Weather
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Status
- Completed
- Report
- Approved by Office Director
- Investigation class
- Class 4 - Basic report with no Prelim publish
- NTSB office
- Eastern Region Aviation
- Parties
- FAA/FSDO
- Case key
- 194424
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
Excessive side loading of the vertical stabilizer.
Findings · 1
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
During a preflight inspection of a flight school airplane, the flight instructor noticed a missing rivet on the left side of the vertical stabilizer. He also noticed that the skin of the vertical stabilizer was bent outwards. The flight instructor walked around to the right side of the airplane and noticed that the same rivet was missing on that side, and the skin was also bent outwards. He called the maintenance department out to the airplane to look at the damage. They subsequently told him the airplane was not airworthy and to write it up as a discrepancy. The maintenance department immediately grounded all the other airplanes and inspected the vertical stabilizers for any damage. No other damage was noted on the remaining 49 airplanes of the flight school operator’s fleet. It could not be determined when the damage to the vertical stabilizer occurred, but the damage was likely the result of excessive side loading of the vertical stabilizer during flight.
Aircraft
- Registration
- N287ND
- Reported as
- Piper PA28R (201)
- Category
- Airplane
- Serial number
- 2844036
- Built
- 2000
- Airframe hours
- 8,899
- Engine
- Lycoming IO360 SER A&C, 200 horsepower, reciprocating
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Flight
- Instructional · Part 91
- Registered owner
- Skyborne Airline Academy Inc
- Airworthiness certificate
- Standard, Normal
- Last inspection
- AAIP · April 26, 2024 · 44 hours before
- Airport
- VRB · Vero Beach Regional
- Equipment
- Stall warning system, Electronic multifunction display, Electronic flight bag or handheld device, ADS-B, Electronic primary flight display, Onboard weather
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.
Weather
- Conditions
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Wind
- 290° at 4 knots
- Visibility
- 9 statute miles
- Lowest ceiling
- None
- Temperature
- 82 °F, dew point 73 °F
- Altimeter
- 29.91 inHg
- Observed at
- FPR, 10 nm away
- METAR
- KFPR 071253Z COR 29004KT 9SM FU CLR 28/23 A2991 RMK AO2 SLP127 T02830228
Docket · 4
The files NTSB released with the investigation on July 18, 2024, on NTSB’s docket system: statements, records, photos and specialists’ reports. 4.0 MB in all.