Piper PA-46-310 N43412

Summary

On 5 March 2000 at about 20:27 local time, a Piper PA-46-310 registered N43412, operated by Joseph J. Grzebik, was involved in an accident near Palo Alto, California, 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

5 March 2000 at 20:27

Classification

Accident

Location

Palo Alto, California, United States

Nearest airport

Palo Alto (PAO)

Coordinates

37.4496, -122.0993

Aircraft

Piper PA-46-310

Registration

N43412

Category

Airplane

Engines

1

Operator

Joseph J. Grzebik

Operating rule

Part 91: General Aviation

Purpose of flight

Personal

Phase of flight

Not recorded

Route

Santa Rosa → Unknown

Aircraft damage

Substantial

Weather

VMC

Light

Day

NTSB number

LAX00LA117

Nobody was injured.

The pilot's failure to obtain/maintain the proper visual glide path resulting in an undershoot and collision with the runway edge.

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

Read the full NTSB narrative

The airplane landed approximately 2 feet short of the runway, and then struck the lip of the pavement, which sheered off the left main gear. The gear itself hung onto the trunnion by the brake lines until the airplane came to rest, approximately 600 feet down the runway. Additionally, the airplane struck a taxiway sign with the left wing while it was traveling down the runway. The pilot told investigators that he was planning on landing on runway 30 and was using 85 knots as his target speed. He said that about 100 feet agl he noticed that he had an excessive sink rate and noticed that his airspeed was about 97 knots. He decided to trade his airspeed to cut the sink rate and said by the time he noticed it wasn't working, he was already on the ground.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record.