- Date
- March 15, 2008, 12:57 local (19:57 UTC)
- Place
- Phoenix, AZ
- Injuries
- 1 uninjured
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Phase of flight
- Landing
- Aircraft
- N416PAPiper PA-28-181
- Defining event
- Landing-landing roll: Loss of control on ground
- Weather
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Status
- Completed · report April 30, 2008
- Report
- Approved by Office Director
- Parties
- Federal Aviation Administration
- FAA report
- 20080315013169A
- Case key
- 67686
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 compensation for the crosswind condition and failure to maintain directional control during the landing roll. Contributing to the accident was the crosswind condition.
Findings · 6
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 student pilot positioned the airplane's wing flaps to the 40-degree position and crabbed the airplane into the left crosswind, which averaged 220 degrees at 11 knots. Four minutes before the accident, the airport's local wind direction was reported as variable at 4 knots with 19-knot gusts. The student pilot landed on runway 25R, and as the airplane decelerated, the pilot attempted to exit the runway at a rate of speed that was too fast to negotiate the turnoff. The pilot lost directional control as the airplane swerved left and collided with several airport signs. Thereafter, the landing gear collapsed.
Factual narrative
The student pilot reported that during final approach he positioned the airplane's wing flaps to the 40-degree position, and he crabbed the airplane into the left crosswind, which was from 220 degrees at 11 knots according to the airport's automatic terminal information service report. At 1253 (4 minutes before the accident), the airport's local wind direction was reported as variable, and its speed was 4 knots with 19-knot gusts.
The student pilot indicated that the airplane touched down on runway 25R for the full stop landing. As he was decelerating and attempting to turn off the runway, the airplane's nose turned left, and he lost directional control. The student also reported that he attempted to correct the airplane's track by applying aileron and rudder control inputs, but the airplane rolled off the left side of the runway subsequently colliding with several airport signs before the landing gear collapsed.
According to the student's certified flight instructor, the student was taxiing at too high a speed to negotiate the exit turn off the runway. The student should have slowed down before exiting the runway.
Aircraft
- Registration
- N416PA
- Reported as
- Piper PA-28-181
- Category
- Airplane
- Serial number
- 2843438
- Engine
- Lycoming O-360-A4M, reciprocating
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Flight
- Instructional · Part 91
- Operator
- Pan Am International Flight Academy
- Registered owner
- Bird Acquisition, LLC.
- Airworthiness certificate
- Standard, Utility; Standard, Normal
- Departed
- E25 · Wickenberg, AZ
- Destination
- DVT · AZ
- Flight plan
- VFR
- Airport
- DVT · Phoenix Deer Valley, runway 25R, 4,500 × 75 ft, asphalt
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
- Student pilot
- Age
- 23
- Injuries
- None
- Certificate
- Student
- Medical
- Class 3
- Flight hours
- 66 total · 66 in this make and model · 61 in the last 90 days · 29 in the last 30 days
Weather
- Conditions
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Wind
- Variable at 4 knots, gusting 19
- Visibility
- 10 statute miles
- Lowest ceiling
- None
- Temperature
- 66 °F, dew point 10 °F
- Altimeter
- 29.81 inHg
- Observed at
- DVT
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 N416PA · 1
Matched to the same aircraft by N-number and date.