At the airport right now and was about to go flying when I noticed there were tons of emergency vehicles on the ramp and far end of the runway. Airport is closed until further notice. Not sure what happened yet...
KDPA Accident 12/17/25 (DuPage IL)
- Thread starter ArrowFlyer86
- Start date
... Sadly sitting at the hangar and this happened.
Weather not a factor. Not a cloud in the sky. ~35-40F. Light wind. Local source telling me it was a light twin.
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Hypie
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Here is a pic from above.
View attachment 148214
Weather not a factor. Not a cloud in the sky. Light wind. Local source telling me it was a light twin.
Attachments
Darn, that nosed in hard. RIP
eman1200
Touchdown! Greaser!
eman1200
Touchdown! Greaser!
ok just got word from cool beard guy. wasn't him but was the plane he flew. jeezus.
kaiser
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Good to hear... I'm assuming you knew the occupants. Prayers to all
charheep
Cleared for Takeoff
I was a member of the flying club when they bought that twin. Damn, that hits close to home. The lack of a fire is concerning.
kaiser
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Yes. Knew both.
To clarify for others, the twin wasn't in the flying club. But the owners of the twin were in the club. I did hear there was a report of a fuel spill post-accident, but reports aren't always accurate initially.
Nikhiln25
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*** Preliminary Report ***
On December 17, 2025, about 1349 central standard time, a Piper PA-30 airplane, N8693Y, was substantially damaged when it was involved in an accident near West Chicago, Illinois. The pilot and pilot-rated passenger were fatally injured.
Airport surveillance video captured the airplane during takeoff. In the video, the airplane appeared to drift to the right of the runway centerline during the initial climb and reached a maximum height of about 75 ft above ground level. The airplane appeared to maintain a nose high attitude and banked to the left and right before the right bank angle increased to about 90°. The airplane then impacted terrain in a nose-low, right-wing-low attitude.
Preliminary air traffic control information revealed that the pilot was cleared for takeoff from runway 20R, and there were no other radio calls made by the pilot after he repeated the takeoff clearance.
The main wreckage came to rest about 567 ft west of runway 20R, south of taxiway T. The initial point of impact was about 106 ft east of the main wreckage. The path from the initial impact point to the main wreckage was a magnetic heading of 255°. The left engine propeller was found embedded in an impact crater along the debris field about 45 ft from the main wreckage. Ground scars consistent with propeller strikes were observed near the impact crater.
The main wreckage came to rest upright, supported by the extended main landing gear. Both wings remained attached to the fuselage with damage consistent with the impact sequence. Both engines remained partially attached to the wings through control cables and wire harnesses. The left engine was found inverted and rested on top of the left wing. The right engine was found hanging from the nacelle firewall.
The forward fuselage exhibited accordion crushing consistent with impact damage, and the fuselage was fractured aft of the rear seats. The empennage remained intact with compression damage consistent with the impact sequence.
Initial examination of the airplane revealed no anomalies with the flight controls or engines that would have precluded normal operation.
Two witnesses observed the accident sequence and stated that the airplane engines sounded normal.
The wreckage was retained for further examination.
On December 17, 2025, about 1349 central standard time, a Piper PA-30 airplane, N8693Y, was substantially damaged when it was involved in an accident near West Chicago, Illinois. The pilot and pilot-rated passenger were fatally injured.
Airport surveillance video captured the airplane during takeoff. In the video, the airplane appeared to drift to the right of the runway centerline during the initial climb and reached a maximum height of about 75 ft above ground level. The airplane appeared to maintain a nose high attitude and banked to the left and right before the right bank angle increased to about 90°. The airplane then impacted terrain in a nose-low, right-wing-low attitude.
Preliminary air traffic control information revealed that the pilot was cleared for takeoff from runway 20R, and there were no other radio calls made by the pilot after he repeated the takeoff clearance.
The main wreckage came to rest about 567 ft west of runway 20R, south of taxiway T. The initial point of impact was about 106 ft east of the main wreckage. The path from the initial impact point to the main wreckage was a magnetic heading of 255°. The left engine propeller was found embedded in an impact crater along the debris field about 45 ft from the main wreckage. Ground scars consistent with propeller strikes were observed near the impact crater.
The main wreckage came to rest upright, supported by the extended main landing gear. Both wings remained attached to the fuselage with damage consistent with the impact sequence. Both engines remained partially attached to the wings through control cables and wire harnesses. The left engine was found inverted and rested on top of the left wing. The right engine was found hanging from the nacelle firewall.
The forward fuselage exhibited accordion crushing consistent with impact damage, and the fuselage was fractured aft of the rear seats. The empennage remained intact with compression damage consistent with the impact sequence.
Initial examination of the airplane revealed no anomalies with the flight controls or engines that would have precluded normal operation.
Two witnesses observed the accident sequence and stated that the airplane engines sounded normal.
The wreckage was retained for further examination.
Does it matter? Sounds like they checked that. "Initial examination of the airplane revealed no anomalies with the flight controls or engines that would have precluded normal operation."
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Maybe I assign more weight to "initial" in the sentence you quoted than others do.
Nauga,
initially final or finally initial?
Ok, fair enough. I guess I've never seen a lock that wouldn't be obvious from an initial inspection. But I've never flown this plane, so...
You'll find at the bottom of each page of the Preliminary Report it states: "This information is preliminary and subject to change." And in order to clear the wreckage an initial review is required for anything obvious which nothing was noted in this case. Once the Public Docket is released you will see the results of the more detailed inspection of the flight controls. However, if something is noted during that initial review then it usually is included in the Prelim Report similar to the Prelim on the UPS MD11 which noted the aft engine mount bearing lugs had failed.
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I'm not focusing on the lock, my emphasis on 'initial' applies to everything summarized after the word "preliminary," i.e. engines and flight controls. It's a less in depth examination that might turn up a smoking gun, but not finding a smoking gun in one area does not (yet) mean there was no root cause or contributing factor in that area. That typically (but not always) comes from a more detailed examination, one reason why reports take so long to produce.
Nauga,
and the 30K foot view
kaiser
Thinking about a Citation
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Seatbelts typically when outdoors overnight in typical piper fashion. The plane lived in a hangar (for at least the last 3+ years).
I was extremely interested in where they found the elevator trim. i would assume they'd note it if it was in a vastly incorrect spot.
not this one! the issue was always forward CG
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That's what I assumed. Just spitballing what might cause this