Piper PA-31T1 Crash Immediately on Takeoff - Venezuela

Cloudhound

Cloudhound

Pre-takeoff checklist
Joined
Sep 18, 2020
Messages
196
Location
Southern WI
Display Name
Cloudhound
Apologies for the fb link, only video I found. It's rather disturbing.

www.facebook.com

Aviation 24/7

YV1443 Piper PA-31T1 San Cristóbal Venezuela 22 OCT 2025 (Crashed On Takeoff) 2 POB - Fatal
www.facebook.com www.facebook.com

Accident Piper PA-31T1 Cheyenne I YV1443, Wednesday 22 October 2025

A Piper PA-31T1 Cheyenne I took off from runway 20 at Paramillo Airport (SCISVPM), San Cristóbal,Táchira, and crashed immediately. Both occupants perished and the aircraft was destroyed...
asn.flightsafety.org
 
Very possible that the pilot wanted to impress his friends who were filming.
 
Pilot stated he was going to fly over the crowd during takeoff. Bank angle + stall speed = crash.
 

Attachments

  • FB_IMG_1761187853422.jpg
    FB_IMG_1761187853422.jpg
    12 KB · Views: 53
I've flown the Cheyenne I, they don't rotate and climb that aggressively. He was either hotdogging or had a control issue.
 
I couldn’t see it, but someone on a different site commented that the left prop appeared to be spooling down. Maybe they have a better quality video than the one I saw - idk how you’d suss that out.
 
What I read elsewhere is that someone in the crowd commented "He's trying to impress us." early in the video and that the appearance of one engine not running is a result of the video scan rate.
 
Appears to be a possible classic VMC roll to me.

It also appears to me that the plane had a slight jerk motion to the left right at rotation.

But I have a small screen on my laptop, making it hard to see everything.
 
After watching the video several times, I still stick to my initial assessment, he jerked the airplane off the ground way too slow, and way too early. I have been around quite a few Cheyenne and even flown them. I've never seen one takeoff like that. The Cheyenne I is a fine airplane, but overpowered it is not. Rotation and climb out is pretty flat. The accident airplane was forced off the ground, either due to the pilot or a control issue, and just stalled period.
 
midwestpa24 said:
After watching the video several times, I still stick to my initial assessment, he jerked the airplane off the ground way too slow, and way too early. I have been around quite a few Cheyenne and even flown them. I've never seen one takeoff like that. The Cheyenne I is a fine airplane, but overpowered it is not. Rotation and climb out is pretty flat. The accident airplane was forced off the ground, either due to the pilot or a control issue, and just stalled period.
Click to expand...
The other thing I noted was no change in engine sounds that would indicate a failure. There should be some significant “out of sync” noise if it was an engine failure.

A full power-on accelerated stall would very likely result in a strong yaw/roll tendency as well.
 
Why the right rudder if he was trying to overfly the crowd to the left? Looks like he was trying to counteract some yaw, possibly from a dead left engine. Plane rolled pretty aggressively to the left, big Piper’s don’t have great roll rates.
 
Rockymountain said:
Why the right rudder if he was trying to overfly the crowd to the left? Looks like he was trying to counteract some yaw, possibly from a dead left engine. Plane rolled pretty aggressively to the left, big Piper’s don’t have great roll rates.
Click to expand...

The engines on a Cheyenne are not counter rotating. They do produce a noticeable left turning tendency on takeoff, especially if you have the nose off the ground that high trying to yank it off the ground early. My first turbine time was in the Cheyenne IIXL, and despite my experience and tailwheel time (I knew how to use a rudder), it still caught me off guard.
 
One of the linked news sites reported that they had a tire explode when they were on the takeoff roll.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top