18 Sep 2008: PIPER PA-28-161 — Sigurd Larsen III

18 Sep 2008: PIPER PA-28-161 — Sigurd Larsen III

No fatalities • Lakeville, MN, United States

Probable cause

The pilot's lack of clearance from the approach lights and the distraction of those bright approach lights during his night approach.

— NTSB Determination

Accident narrative

The pilot reported that he was going to perform two night landings at the accident airport before departing to his destination. He said that he was too high on final and reduced the power to idle and descended. The approach lights were on and the pilot reported that they were bright. He said that he was pressing the push to talk switch while looking at the lights and heard a loud bang. He stated that the airplane porpoised, he then regained control, and landed. The approach lights were damaged and the airplane sustained substantial damage. His safety recommendation said, "I should have aborted landing when I saw I was too high – went around, adjusted light brightness in the pattern and then landed."

Contributing factors

  • cause Pilot
  • Dark
  • cause Descent/approach/glide path — Not attained/maintained
  • cause Effect on personnel

Conditions

Weather
VMC, wind 110/04kt, vis 10sm

Loading the flight search…

What you can do on Flight Finder

  • Search flights between any two airports with live fares.
  • By aircraft — pick a plane model (e.g. Boeing 787, Airbus A350) and see every route it flies from your origin.
  • Route map — click any airport worldwide to explore its destinations, or draw a radius to find nearby airports.
  • Global aviation safety — aviation accident database, 5,200+ records since 1980, with map and rankings by aircraft and operator.
  • NTSB safety feed — recent U.S. aviation accidents and incidents from the official NTSB CAROL database, updated daily.

Frequently asked questions

How do I search flights by aircraft type on FlightFinder?

Pick an aircraft model — Boeing 737, Airbus A320, A380, Boeing 787 Dreamliner and more — enter your origin airport, and FlightFinder shows every route that plane flies from there with live fares.

Which aircraft types can I filter by?

We support Boeing 737/747/757/767/777/787, the full Airbus A220/A319/A320/A321/A330/A340/A350/A380 family, Embraer E170/E175/E190/E195, Bombardier CRJ and Dash 8, and the ATR 42/72 turboprops.

Is FlightFinder free to use?

Search and schedules are free. Pro ($4.99/month, $39/year, or $99 one-time lifetime) unlocks the enriched flight card — on-time stats, CO₂ per passenger, amenities, live gate & weather — plus My Trips with push alerts.

Where does the route data come from?

Live schedules come from Amadeus, AeroDataBox and Travelpayouts. Observed routes (which aircraft actually flew a given city pair) are crowdsourced from adsb.lol ADS-B data under the Open Database License.