Piper J3 N88204

Summary

On 30 August 2020 at about 22:30 local time, a Piper J3 registered N88204 was involved in an accident near Hartford, Wisconsin, United States. One person was 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

30 August 2020 at 22:30

Classification

Accident

Location

Hartford, Wisconsin, United States

Nearest airport

Hartford Municipal Airport (HXF)

Coordinates

43.3489, -88.3903

Aircraft

Piper J3

Registration

N88204

Category

Airplane

Year built

1946

Engines

1

Operator

Not recorded

Operating rule

Part 91: General Aviation

Purpose of flight

Personal

Phase of flight

Not recorded

Route

Westbend → Unknown

Aircraft damage

Substantial

Weather

VMC

Light

Dusk

NTSB number

CEN20LA436

Nobody was injured.

The pilot’s loss of situation awareness which resulted in landing in a grass area and the subsequent collision with a runway marker.

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

Read the full NTSB narrative

The pilot planned a personal flight to a nearby airport that had recently added new runways. Before the flight, his flight instructor sent him an airport diagram with the new grass runway marked, which was parallel to an asphalt runway. After the pilot reviewed the diagram, he thought he knew where to expect the new grass runway. While in the traffic pattern at the destination airport, the pilot noticed a large open grass space below him, so he landed the airplane. The pilot landed to the east but thought he had landed to the west. The area that he landed on was not the grass runway; while completing a fast taxi, the airplane collided with a runway marker for the north-south runway. The airplane sustained substantial damage to the fuselage and left wing spar.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record.