Piper PA34 accident near Westhampton Beach, NY
On October 13, 2018, a Piper PA34 (airplane) was involved in an accident near Westhampton Beach, NY. 3 people died. Damage to the aircraft: destroyed.
- Date
- October 13, 2018
- Place
- Westhampton Beach, NY
- Aircraft
- Piper PA34 · Airplane
- Injuries
- 3 fatal, 0 serious, 0 minor
- Damage
- Destroyed
- Position
- 40.470°N, 72.360°W
- NTSB ID
- 20181013X75622
Official records · ERA19LA012
- Public docket: reports, statements and exhibits from the investigation
Air traffic control records
- Transcript of Radio Communications: Transcript (PDF), on ntsb.gov
NTSB summary
HISTORY OF FLIGHTOn October 13, 2018, at 1058 eastern daylight time, a Piper PA-34-200T, N593MS, was destroyed when it was involved in an accident near Westhampton Beach, New York. The flight instructor, a private pilot and a passenger were fatally injured. The airplane was operated as a Title 14 Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) Part 91 instructional flight. The flight instructor departed Waterbury Oxford Airport (OXC), Oxford, Connecticut, and landed at Danbury Municipal Airport (DXR), Danbury, Connecticut, to pick up the private pilot and passenger for the flight to Charleston Executive Airport (JZI), Charleston, South Carolina. Text messages from the flight instructor to another student indicated that the instructor planned to fly back alone after dropping off the private pilot and the passenger. Radar and voice communication information from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) showed that the airplane departed DXR around 1025. At 1026:47, the instructor requested visual flight rules (VFR) flight following from the air traffic controller and announced a planned climb to 8,500 ft mean sea level (msl), and an on-course heading of 219°. At 1037:06, the instructor checked in with the controller at 9,200 ft msl, and radar data showed the airplane's ground track still in a southeasterly direction. When queried by the controller, the instructor replied that he was climbing to 11,500 ft msl, and that his heading would be 223°. The airplane's ground track continued southeast. At 1042:51, the instructor indicated to the controller that he was climbing another 1,000 ft to be
Probable cause
The instructor's decision to conduct and continue a visual flight rules flight into instrument meteorological conditions with a known flight instrument anomaly, which resulted in spatial disorientation, causing a loss of airplane control and subsequent in-flight breakup. Contributing to the accident were the instructor's lack of recent instrument flight experience and degraded airplane control and
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Browse: New York · Piper aircraft
Source: NTSB aviation accident database (US government, public domain). Findings may be preliminary or later revised by the NTSB. Not a complete global record.
