Piper PA-28 N5341W

Summary

On 15 August 2022 at about 15:00 local time, a Piper PA-28 registered N5341W was involved in an accident near Lucedale, Mississippi, 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

15 August 2022 at 15:00

Classification

Accident

Location

Lucedale, Mississippi, United States

Nearest airport

Sky Landings Airport (22MS)

Coordinates

30.8022, -88.5475

Aircraft

Piper PA-28

Registration

N5341W

Category

Airplane

Year built

1962

Engines

1

Operator

Not recorded

Operating rule

Part 91: General Aviation

Purpose of flight

Personal

Phase of flight

Not recorded

Route

Abbeville → Lucedale

Aircraft damage

Substantial

Weather

VMC

Light

Day

NTSB number

CEN22LA388

Nobody was injured.

The pilot’s failure to maintain directional control while landing on the wet turf runway with a higher speed.

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

Read the full NTSB narrative

While landing on a wet turf runway, the pilot used 30° of flaps and an approach speed of about 75 knots so he could land softly. A witness observed that the airplane’s speed during rollout was faster than normal. During the landing roll the airplane started to slide to the left. The pilot attempted to keep the airplane in the center of the runway. The airplane then turned violently to the left, departed the runway, and impacted a peanut field. The airplane nosed over and came to rest inverted resulting in substantial damage to the right wing and vertical stabilizer. A postaccident examination revealed the nosewheel tire pressure was low and the shimmy dampener had little resistance in either direction. No anomalies were observed with the main landing gear brake assemblies or tires that would have precluded normal operations. The pilot’s loss of directional control on the wet turf runway was likely due to the higher-than-normal touchdown and rollout speeds on a wet turf runway. It is possible that the low tire pressure and shimmy dampener may have contributed to the pilot’s inability to regain control of the airplane; however, investigators were not able to establish the extent that this would have contributed to the accident.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record.