- Date
- February 17, 1980
- Place
- Palmdale, CA · PALMDALE, CA
- Injuries
- 2 fatal, 2 serious
- Damage
- Destroyed
- Phase of flight
- Uncontrolled descent
- Aircraft
- N4517XPiper PA-28
- Status
- Completed · report February 21, 1981
- Report
- Brief approved by the director
- FAA report
- 19800217003219A
- Case key
- 131649
From the NTSB’s public API. By law, NTSB reports can’t be used as evidence in lawsuits over the accident.
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NTSB brief
NTSB’s brief of the accident, as it was printed: the coded facts, with the probable cause and factors.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- FILE DATE LOCATION AIRCRAFT DATA INJURIES FLIGHT PILOT DATA F S M/N PURPOSE ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3-3289 80/2/17 NR.PALMDALE,CA PIPER PA-28 CR- 0 1 0 NONCOMMERCIAL PRIVATE, AGE 19, 468 TIME - 1805 N4517X PX- 2 1 0 PLEASURE/PERSONAL TRANSP TOTAL HOURS, 79 IN TYPE, DAMAGE-DESTROYED OT- 0 0 0 INSTRUMENT RATED. DEPARTURE POINT INTENDED DESTINATION BULLHEAD CITY,AZ BURBANK,CA TYPE OF ACCIDENT PHASE OF OPERATION COLLIDED WITH: TREES IN FLIGHT: UNCONTROLLED DESCENT PROBABLE CAUSE(S) PILOT IN COMMAND - INITIATED FLIGHT IN ADVERSE WEATHER CONDITIONS PILOT IN COMMAND - CONTINUED FLIGHT INTO KNOWN AREAS OF SEVERE TURBULENCE FACTOR(S) WEATHER - DOWNDRAFT,UPDRAFTS WEATHER - TURBULENCE, ASSOCIATED W/CLOUDS AND/OR THUNDERSTORMS WEATHER - UNFAVORABLE WIND CONDITIONS WEATHER BRIEFING - BRIEFED BY FLIGHT SERVICE PERSONNEL, BY PHONE WEATHER FORECAST - FORECAST SUBSTANTIALLY CORRECT SKY CONDITION CEILING AT ACCIDENT SITE OVERCAST/LOWER SCATTERED 8000 VISIBILITY AT ACCIDENT SITE PRECIPITATION AT ACCIDENT SITE 5 OR OVER(UNLIMITED) RAIN OBSTRUCTIONS TO VISION AT ACCIDENT SITE WIND DIRECTION-DEGREES NONE 240 WIND VELOCITY-KNOTS TYPE OF WEATHER CONDITIONS 42 IFR TYPE OF FLIGHT PLAN IFR FIRE AFTER IMPACT REMARKS- SIGMET H6 STATED SEV TURB BLW 24000FT,ESP W/IN 6000FT OF SFC OVR ROUGH TER.WINDS ALOFT TO 50KTS.
Aircraft
- Registration
- N4517X
- Reported as
- Piper PA-28
- Category
- Airplane
- Engine
- reciprocating
- Damage
- Destroyed
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.
FAA reports on this event · 1
The FAA’s own accident and incident reports, matched to the aircraft by N-number and date.