- Date
- November 13, 2024, 14:16 local (19:16 UTC)
- Place
- Palm Beach Gardens, FL · F45 airport
- Injuries
- 1 uninjured
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Phase of flight
- Landing
- Aircraft
- N6294CPiper PA28
- Defining event
- Landing: Hard landing
- 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
- 199418
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 failure to maintain directional control of the airplane during landing in a gusting crosswind, which resulted in a hard landing and runway excursion.
Findings · 2
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 pilot was practicing touch-and-go landings at his base airport. While on his first approach to landing, the pilot reported that the wind was very gusty and that the gusts were “stronger than anticipated.” Just before touchdown, a gust of wind pushed the airplane to the right side of the runway. The airplane landed hard and, the nose gear collapsed., and The airplane then went off the side of the runway and into a ditch. The airplane sustained substantial damage to the tubular engine mounts and cockpit floor. The pilot reported there were no anomalies or mechanical failures that would have precluded normal operation of the airplane and that it “was nothing but a bad landing due to a surprising downdraft and too low to recover.”
Aircraft
- Registration
- N6294C
- Reported as
- Piper PA28 (181)
- Category
- Airplane
- Serial number
- 28-7890358
- Built
- 1978
- Airframe hours
- 13,629.3
- Engine
- Lycoming O-360-A4M, 180 horsepower, reciprocating
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Flight
- Personal · Part 91
- Operator
- SkyBlue Jet Academy
- Airworthiness certificate
- Standard, Utility; Standard, Normal
- Last inspection
- 100 hour · October 4, 2024
- Airport
- F45 · North Palm Beach County General Aviation, runway 14, 4,300 × 75 ft, asphalt
- Equipment
- Unknown
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
- 68
- Injuries
- None
- Certificate
- Private
- Airplane ratings
- Single-engine land
- Medical
- Class 3, With waivers/limitations
- Last flight review
- April 8, 2024
- Seat
- Left
- Flight hours
- 588.2 total · 463.2 in this make and model · 459.6 as pilot in command
Weather
- Conditions
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Wind
- 60° at 13 knots, gusting 22
- Visibility
- 10 statute miles
- Lowest ceiling
- 3,600 ft broken
- Temperature
- 79 °F, dew point 66 °F
- Altimeter
- 30.01 inHg
- Observed at
- F45
- METAR
- METAR KF45 131910Z AUTO 06013G22KT 10SM BKN036 BKN046 26/19 A3001 RMK AO2=
Docket · 4
The files NTSB released with the investigation on April 22, 2025, on NTSB’s docket system: statements, records, photos and specialists’ reports. 9.7 MB in all.
Other investigations on N6294C · 1
Matched to the same aircraft by N-number and date.