Piper PA34 N1293T

Summary

On 10 July 2025 at about 03:26 local time, a Piper PA34 registered N1293T, operated by ATA Flight School, was involved in an accident near Fort Lauderdale, Florida, United States. 2 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

10 July 2025 at 03:26

Classification

Accident

Location

Fort Lauderdale, Florida, United States

Nearest airport

Fort Lauderdale Executive (FXE)

Coordinates

26.1982, -80.1746

Aircraft

Piper PA34

Registration

N1293T

Category

Airplane

Year built

1972

Engines

2

Operator

ATA Flight School

Operating rule

Part 91: General Aviation

Purpose of flight

Instructional

Phase of flight

Not recorded

Route

Jacksonville → Unknown

Aircraft damage

Substantial

Weather

VMC

Light

Not Reported

NTSB number

ERA25LA263

Nobody was injured.

The flight instructor’s inadequate supervision and delayed remedial actions during the landing approach, which resulted in the airplane contacting the runway with the landing gear retracted.

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

Read the full NTSB narrative

Being high in relation to destination airport, the flight instructor of the multi-engine airplane initiated a steep descent with the throttles at idle. During the descent, the landing gear warning horn sounded, which the flight instructor thought was the stall warning. After descending to traffic pattern altitude, the flight instructor transferred control back to the multi-engine student, who joined base-to-final leg of the airport traffic pattern. The student subsequently recommended either performing a go-around or squaring the base turn to final approach for landing. The flight instructor directed him to perform “S-turns” which he felt uncomfortable doing and the tower controller instructed them to maneuver as needed. The student then transferred control of the airplane back to the flight instructor either on the base leg or short final approach. While on short final approach (likely due to cockpit annunciation of either the radio altimeter or throttles being at idle with the landing gear not extended) the flight instructor recognized that the landing gear was not configured for landing and initiated a go-around. The airplane was too low and subsequently contacted the runway with the landing gear retracted, resulting in substantial damage to the underside of the fuselage. After raising the airplane from the runway, the landing gear was extended using the normal system with no reported issues.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record.