Piper PA32 N55455

Summary

On 25 January 2020 at about 14:30 local time, a Piper PA32 registered N55455 was involved in an accident near Lake City, Florida, United States. One person was on board and one died. The aircraft was destroyed. The NTSB has published a probable cause for this accident; it is quoted in full below.

Date

25 January 2020 at 14:30

Classification

Accident

Location

Lake City, Florida, United States

Nearest airport

Cannon Creek Airpark (15FL)

Coordinates

30.1569, -82.6692

Aircraft

Piper PA32

Registration

N55455

Category

Airplane

Year built

1973

Engines

1

Operator

Not recorded

Operating rule

Part 91: General Aviation

Purpose of flight

Personal

Phase of flight

Not recorded

Route

Lake City → Tyler

Aircraft damage

Destroyed

Weather

VMC

Light

Day

NTSB number

ERA20FA085

1 person died.

The pilot's exceedance of the airplane's critical angle of attack, which resulted in an aerodynamic stall and subsequent loss of control at low altitude.

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

Read the full NTSB narrative

A witness described that, when the pilot arrived at the airport several days before the accident, the airplane’s engine “cut out” while on final approach to the runway. After landing uneventfully, the pilot had a mechanic service the airplane, and the engine performed normally. On the day of the accident, as the airplane departed, the witness reported that he watched the airplane turn “hard left” after it cleared trees near the runway. He later heard a loud bang, then saw smoke. He drove over to the smoke and saw that the airplane was completely engulfed in flames. The airplane came to rest in the yard of a residence about 1,000 feet left of the runway’s midpoint. Postaccident examination of the airplane was limited due to impact and postcrash fire damage; however, no defects consistent with a preimpact failure or malfunction of either the airframe or engine were observed. Additionally, a sound spectrum analysis of the audio from a video recording showed that the engine was likely running slightly below full throttle before the accident. Given this information, there was no evidence that a loss of engine power preceded the accident. The witness’s description that the airplane was in a “hard left” turn, the location of the accident site relatively close to the runway, the lack of a discernable horizontal wreckage path, and little fragmentation of the wreckage to suggest a high-energy impact, were consistent with the airplane impacting the ground in a near-vertical descent at a relatively low speed. Thus, it is likely that the pilot exceeded the airplane’s critical angle of attack during the steep, low-altitude turn shortly after takeoff, which resulted in an aerodynamic stall and loss of airplane control at an altitude too low for recovery.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record.