- Date
- August 7, 2025, 12:55 local (16:55 UTC)
- Place
- Inverness Highlands South, FL
- Injuries
- 1 uninjured
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Phase of flight
- Taxi
- Aircraft
- N686JAPiper PA-28-181
- Defining event
- Taxi-from runway: Loss of control on ground
- Weather
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Status
- Completed · report November 20, 2025
- Report
- Approved by Office Director
- Investigation class
- Class 4 - Basic report with no Prelim publish
- NTSB office
- Eastern Region Aviation
- Parties
- FAA/FSDO
- FAA report
- 20250807011669A
- Case key
- 200749
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 inadequate monitoring of the airplane during taxi which resulted in collision with a sign.
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
The pilot stated that he was practicing touch-and-go landings at different airports. After his second landing at the airport, he was taxing back to the runway for departure to a different airport. During the taxi, he was looking down at his tablet computer, loading in a new route, when the airplane ran off the paved surface and into a sign. The collision resulted in substantial damage to the underside of the right wing. The pilot reported that there were no preimpact mechanical malfunctions or failures of the airplane that would have precluded normal operation.
Aircraft
- Registration
- N686JA
- Reported as
- Piper PA-28-181
- Category
- Airplane
- Serial number
- 28020086
- Built
- 2022
- Airframe hours
- 2,025
- Engine
- Lycoming IO-360-B4, 200 hp, reciprocating
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Flight
- Personal · Part 91
- Registered owner
- Hot Wings Aviation LLC
- Airworthiness certificate
- Standard, Normal
- Last inspection
- Annual · July 29, 2025
- Departed
- V04 · Apopka, FL
- Destination
- Same as departure
- Airport
- INF · Inverness, runway 01, 5,000 × 75 ft, asphalt
- Equipment
- Electronic multifunction display, Auto-pilot, Electronic primary flight display, ADS-B
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
- Multi-engine land
- Medical
- Class 3, Without waivers/limitations
- Last flight review
- June 30, 2025
- Seat
- Left
- Restraint
- 3-point
- Flight hours
- 80.4 total · 18.7 in this make and model · 18.7 in the last 90 days · 4.7 in the last 30 days · 0 in the last 24 hours
Weather
- Conditions
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Wind
- 140° at 3 knots
- Visibility
- 7 statute miles
- Temperature
- 91 °F, dew point 73 °F
- Altimeter
- 30.05 inHg
- Observed at
- INF, 1 nm away
- METAR
- KINF 071655Z AUTO 14003KT 7SM 33/23 A3005 RMK AO2
Docket · 2
The files NTSB released with the investigation on November 20, 2025, on NTSB’s docket system: statements, records, photos and specialists’ reports. 2.7 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 N686JA · 1
Matched to the same aircraft by N-number and date.