Piper PA-28-140 N5454S

Summary

On 13 December 1997 at about 21:45 local time, a Piper PA-28-140 registered N5454S was involved in an accident near Sturtevant, Wisconsin, United States. One person was on board and one died. The aircraft was destroyed. The NTSB has published a probable cause for this accident; it is quoted in full below.

Date

13 December 1997 at 21:45

Classification

Accident

Location

Sturtevant, Wisconsin, United States

Nearest airport

Sylvania Airport (C89)

Coordinates

42.7009, -87.8892

Aircraft

Piper PA-28-140

Registration

N5454S

Category

Airplane

Engines

1

Operator

Not recorded

Operating rule

Part 91: General Aviation

Purpose of flight

Instructional

Phase of flight

Not recorded

Aircraft damage

Destroyed

Weather

VMC

Light

Day

NTSB number

CHI98LA061

1 person died.

The pilot's misjudgment of altitude/distance and her failure to maintain adequate visual lookout. Also causal was the pilot's failure to maintain adequate obstacle clearance. A contributing factor was the pilot experiencing a visual illusion.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record. This site does not paraphrase or interpret it.

Read the full NTSB narrative

Witnesses reported the airplane approached the runway at a '...very low angle... .' The airplane crossed a 4-lane highway that was perpendicular to the runway and final approach course. The landing gear struck the top of a southbound semi-trailer truck's air deflector and trailer, then the airplane collided with the ground about 140-feet west of the truck collision point. According to the pilot's logbook, she had accumulated over 37 hours of total flight experience. She had flown about 26 hours at an airport that had runways 100 and 150-feet wide, and about 11 hours at the accident airport runway, 33 feet wide. According to a Human Performance Specialist at the FAA's Civil Aeromedical Institute, runway width differences may be a source of distortion in perception during landing. When the runway is narrower than normal, the pilot may experience an illusion that causes them to fly a lower than normal final approach path.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record.