- Date
- March 8, 1990, 13:13 local (18:13 UTC)
- Place
- Smithfield, RI
- Injuries
- 2 fatal
- Damage
- Destroyed
- Phase of flight
- Maneuvering
- Aircraft
- N2603GPiper PA-38-112
- Weather
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Status
- Completed · report October 10, 1991
- Report
- Approved by Office Director
- FAA report
- 19900308003529A
- Case key
- 36527
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
Improper in-flight planning/decision by the pilot, which resulted in insufficient altitude to recover from a stall. Factors related to the accident were: the pilot's lack of total experience and excessive gross weight of the airplane.
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
About 5 min after the plt & passenger departed on a local flt, witnesses noted a decrease in eng power & saw the nose of the acft drop. The plane then descended & crashed on wooded terrain. One witness rprtd that just before impact, the plt was practicing stalls at an altitude of about 1000' AGL. An exam of the eng revealed the bottom spark plugs were lead fouled; however, the top spark plugs were normal in color & wear. One prop blade was bent with an 's' shape & it contained chordwise scrape marks; also, cut branches were noted where the acft entered trees during impact. The plt had rcvd his pvt plt cert on the previous day; his total flt time was about 68 hrs. The acft's gross wt was estd to have been about 1740 lbs; its max cert wt was 1670 lbs.
Aircraft
- Registration
- N2603G
- Reported as
- Piper PA-38-112
- Category
- Airplane
- Serial number
- 38-79A0567
- Engine
- Lycoming O-235-L2C, 112 horsepower, reciprocating
- Damage
- Destroyed
- Flight
- Personal · Part 91
- Operator
- North Central Airways, Inc.
- Departed
- SFZ · Pawtucket, RI
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
- 20
- Certificate
- Private
- Airplane ratings
- Single-engine land
- Medical
- Class 3, Valid Medical--w/ waivers/lim
- Toxicology
- Performed
- Flight hours
- 68 total · 68 in this make and model · 15 as pilot in command · 30 in the last 90 days · 16 in the last 30 days
Weather
- Conditions
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Wind
- 160° at 3 knots
- Visibility
- 15 statute miles
- Lowest ceiling
- None
- Temperature
- -0 °F, dew point -0 °F
- Observed at
- PVD, 14 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.