Piper PA-28-181 N8126X

Summary

On 10 June 2023 at about 20:00 local time, a Piper PA-28-181 registered N8126X, operated by Freeflight Aviation Llc., was involved in an accident near Lumberton, New Jersey, 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

10 June 2023 at 20:00

Classification

Accident

Location

Lumberton, New Jersey, United States

Nearest airport

Flying W (N14)

Coordinates

39.9343, -74.8072

Aircraft

Piper PA-28-181

Registration

N8126X

Category

Airplane

Year built

1979

Engines

1

Operator

Freeflight Aviation Llc.

Operating rule

Part 91: General Aviation

Purpose of flight

Instructional

Phase of flight

Not recorded

Route

Lumberton → Lumberton

Aircraft damage

Substantial

Weather

VMC

Light

Day

NTSB number

ERA23LA296

Nobody was injured.

The student pilot’s improper flight control inputs and the flight instructor’s delayed remedial action during takeoff, which resulted in a runway excursion and impact with the runway edge lights.

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

Read the full NTSB narrative

During a simulated soft field take off from a paved runway the student pilot followed the procedure of holding control wheel back pressure while accelerating for takeoff. The airplane began to lift off the runway into ground effect with an excessive nose high attitude and began drifting to left of center line. Upon realizing the airplane was in an imminent stall due to the high angle attack and veering away from the runway centerline, the flight instructor took over control of the airplane, but the airplane had already drifted over the grassy area off the left side of the runway. During the subsequent runway excursion, the right side of the horizontal stabilator struck two of the runway edge lights and incurred substantial damage. Neither the flight instructor, nor the student pilot, heard the impact and continued their flight lesson. The damage was discovered after they completed the lesson. Following the accident, the flight instructor stated that he should have been more proactive in either taking control, or ensuring the student was relaxing the back pressure on the control wheel as they started gaining speed to help get the airplane in to ground effect for the simulated soft field departure.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record.