Piper PA 28-140 N1572J

Summary

On 1 February 2016 at about 23:15 local time, a Piper PA 28-140 registered N1572J was involved in an accident near Sturtevant, Wisconsin, 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

1 February 2016 at 23:15

Classification

Accident

Location

Sturtevant, Wisconsin, United States

Nearest airport

Sylvania (C89)

Coordinates

42.7036, -87.9539

Aircraft

Piper PA 28-140

Registration

N1572J

Category

Airplane

Year built

1967

Engines

1

Operator

Not recorded

Operating rule

Part 91: General Aviation

Purpose of flight

Personal

Phase of flight

Not recorded

Route

Racine → Racine

Aircraft damage

Substantial

Weather

VMC

Light

Dusk

NTSB number

CEN16LA097

Nobody was injured.

The pilot's failure to maintain a proper glidepath during a landing at dusk, which resulted in impact with a moving ground vehicle. Contributing to the accident was the inoperative precision approach path indicator.

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

Read the full NTSB narrative

The commercial pilot was performing the fourth in a series of landings at dusk. While on final approach, the low-wing airplane's landing gear impacted a tractor-trailer traveling on the highway perpendicular to the runway. All three of the airplane's landing gear separated, and the pilot performed a go-around followed by a "belly" landing to the parallel grass runway. Following a similar accident about 19 years earlier, the airport installed a precision approach path indicator (PAPI) to provide visual glidepath guidance for pilots. The PAPI was inoperative at the time of the accident, and the airport had not issued a Notice to Airmen (NOTAM) to alert pilots of this fact. It is likely that the pilot's visual references were reduced due to the dusk conditions, and it is probable that, had the PAPI been operative and providing corrective feedback to the pilot, he would have adjusted the airplane's excessively low glidepath accordingly.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record.