23 Jul 2009: PIPER PA32R 301T — Dean Sather

23 Jul 2009: PIPER PA32R 301T — Dean Sather

No fatalities • Colorado Springs, CO, United States

Probable cause

The pilot's low altitude encounter with windshear during takeoff.

— NTSB Determination

Accident narrative

According to the pilot, the tower controller cautioned for wind shear and then cleared the flight to depart. The pilot delayed momentarily to assess the wind conditions and then departed. The airplane climbed to 75 feet, and then began to lose altitude as if the airplane was "being pushed down." The pilot applied corrective measures but was unable to arrest the descent. The airplane impacted the runway resulting in substantial damage to the airplane. The automated special weather observation report, issued shortly after the time of the accident, reported winds variable from 100 degrees to 160 degrees at 7 knots with light rain.

Contributing factors

  • cause Ability to respond/compensate
  • Capability exceeded

Conditions

Weather
VMC, 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.