- Date
- February 21, 1987, 12:30 local (20:30 UTC)
- Place
- Petaluma, CA
- Injuries
- 4 uninjured
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Phase of flight
- Landing
- Aircraft
- N56887Piper PA-28-140
- Weather
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Status
- Completed · report March 21, 1988
- Report
- Approved by Office Director
- FAA report
- 19870221003149A
- Case key
- 25528
From the NTSB’s public API. By law, NTSB reports can’t be used as evidence in lawsuits over the accident.
On this page
Sequence of events
NTSB’s coding before 2008: each occurrence and phase of flight, and the causes and factors under it. The codes are defined in NTSB’s coding manual.
Analysis
At the end of a pleasure cross-country flt, the plt reported he was downwind to rwy 29 and noted the wind was light from 110 degs. On final apch the plt was following another acft and noted that the acft had a slight crab to the right. The plt observed that the wind direction had changed to a right cross-wind. When the acft touched-down the plt stated that a strong gust of wind from the right pushed the acft off the rwy and collided with the terrain. Wind conditions on the arpt at the time of the accident were reported as wind from 320 degs at 15 KTS, gusting to 25 KTS.
Aircraft
- Registration
- N56887
- Reported as
- Piper PA-28-140
- Category
- Airplane
- Serial number
- 7425059
- Airframe hours
- 3,856
- Engine
- Lycoming O-320-E3D, 150 horsepower, reciprocating
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Flight
- Personal · Part 91
- Registered owner
- Donald E. Hunsicker
- Airworthiness certificate
- Standard, Normal
- Last inspection
- Annual · February 11, 1986 · 78 hours before
- Departed
- STS · Sonoma, CA
- Destination
- 069 · Petaluma, CA
- Airport
- 069 · Petaluma, runway 29, 3,600 × 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
- Pilot
- Age
- 60
- Certificate
- Private
- Airplane ratings
- Single-engine land
- Medical
- Class 3, Valid Medical--w/ waivers/lim
- Seat
- Left
- Flight hours
- 171 total · 73 in this make and model · 171 as pilot in command · 65 in the last 90 days · 23 in the last 30 days · 1 in the last 24 hours
Weather
- Conditions
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Wind
- 320° at 15 knots, gusting 25
- Visibility
- 30 statute miles
- Lowest ceiling
- 3,000 ft broken
- Temperature
- 52 °F
- Altimeter
- 29.00 inHg
- Observed at
- STS, 20 nm away
FAA reports on this event · 1
The FAA’s own accident and incident reports, matched to the aircraft by N-number and date.