Piper PA-28-180 N9179J

Summary

On 7 April 2017 at about 20:07 local time, a Piper PA-28-180 registered N9179J, operated by Green Castle Aero Club Ltd, was involved in an accident near Oxford, Iowa, United States. 2 people were on board and 2 died. The aircraft was destroyed. The NTSB has published a probable cause for this accident; it is quoted in full below.

Date

7 April 2017 at 20:07

Classification

Accident

Location

Oxford, Iowa, United States

Coordinates

41.6567, -91.6981

Aircraft

Piper PA-28-180

Registration

N9179J

Category

Airplane

Year built

1966

Engines

1

Operator

Green Castle Aero Club Ltd

Operating rule

Part 91: General Aviation

Purpose of flight

Instructional

Phase of flight

Not recorded

Route

Oxford → Oxford

Aircraft damage

Destroyed

Weather

VMC

Light

Day

NTSB number

CEN17FA147

2 people died.

The failure of the pilot receiving instruction to recover from the practice stall before the airplane entered a spin and the flight instructor's inadequate monitoring of the pilot receiving instruction and delayed remedial action to recover the airplane.

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

Read the full NTSB narrative

The private pilot had not flown in several years and was receiving instruction from a flight instructor. Radar data indicated that the pilots were performing ground reference maneuvers during the flight. The data showed that the airplane maintained an altitude of 3,400 ft mean sea level, about 2,600 ft above ground level, before it made a left turn and entered a rapid descent. A witness reported that he heard the engine popping and backfiring, and it appeared as if the airplane wasn't moving forward. According to the witness, the nose of the airplane then dropped, and the airplane entered a spiral and completed eight or nine rotations, before it entered a straight nose-down dive that continued to impact A postaccident examination of the airframe and engine did not reveal any anomalies consistent with a preimpact failure or malfunction. It is likely that the private pilot was practicing a stall from which he did not recover before the airplane entered a spin. In addition, had the instructor been appropriately monitoring the private pilot's actions he would have been able to provide remedial action to recover from the stall/spin.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record.