Piper PA32RT N3025L

Summary

On 1 August 2020 at about 11:50 local time, a Piper PA32RT registered N3025L was involved in an accident near Honesdale, Pennsylvania, United States. 5 people were on board and nobody was injured. The aircraft was substantially damaged. The NTSB has published a probable cause for this accident; it is quoted in full below.

Date

1 August 2020 at 11:50

Classification

Accident

Location

Honesdale, Pennsylvania, United States

Nearest airport

Cherry Ridge (N30)

Coordinates

41.5156, -75.2517

Aircraft

Piper PA32RT

Registration

N3025L

Category

Airplane

Year built

1979

Engines

1

Operator

Not recorded

Operating rule

Part 91: General Aviation

Purpose of flight

Personal

Phase of flight

Not recorded

Route

Honesdale → Ocean City

Aircraft damage

Substantial

Weather

VMC

Light

Day

NTSB number

ERA20LA274

Nobody was injured.

The pilot’s premature rotation for takeoff, which resulted in a tail strike and subsequent runway excursion. Contributing to the accident was the pilot’s inadequate preflight planning, which failed to accurately determine and account for the effects of high-density altitude on performance.

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

Read the full NTSB narrative

The pilot and four passengers boarded the airplane for a personal cross-country flight. Although the pilot reported that the airplane veered to the left uncontrollably during the takeoff roll, security camera video showed that the airplane tracked the runway heading until the airplane’s pitch attitude increased to the point where a tail strike occurred about 1,660 ft down the 2,986-ft-long runway. The nose of the airplane then pitched down rapidly; the nose landing gear collapsed; and the airplane veered off the left side of the runway in a nose-low attitude, struck vegetation and terrain, and came to rest. No evidence of any preimpact failures or malfunctions was found during postaccident examination of the airplane. According to the pilot’s preflight performance calculations, the airplane was about 127.3 pounds below maximum gross weight; the density altitude was 1,227 ft; and the airplane’s estimated takeoff ground roll was 1,500 to 1,600 ft. Review of the weather conditions present at the time of the accident indicated that the density altitude was 2,622 ft. According to the performance charts for the airplane, at a density altitude of 2,622 ft and the airplane weight calculated by the pilot, the airplane’s takeoff ground roll would be about 1,630 ft. A Koch chart indicated that for the accident conditions as compared to standard temperature sea level values, a 28% increase in takeoff distance should have been anticipated by the pilot along with a 21% decrease in climb rate.  

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record.