Philadelphia, PA, USA
N5166S
PIPER PA-28-180
The airplane entered airspace under a Temporary Flight Restriction and was escorted to the accident airport by military aircraft. Pilots at the airport who witnessed the accident described the airplane’s approach as “long, slow, and unstable” and stated that the wings were “rocking.” They each described the airplane experiencing an aerodynamic stall where the airplane “dropped sharply” from about 50 feet above the runway surface. The pilot reported to a Federal Aviation Administration inspector that there were no mechanical deficiencies with his airplane that would have precluded normal operations, and that a vibration he detected before ground contact was “the stalled wing.”
The pilot’s exceedance of the wing’s critical angle of attack, which resulted in an aerodynamic stall and loss of aircraft control.
Source: NTSB Aviation Accident Database
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