NTSB Factual Report

On May 11, 1997, about 1355 eastern daylight time, a flight instructor was fatally injured by the rotating propeller on N56639, a Piper PA-28R-200, at the Pottstown-Limerick airport, Pottstown, Pennsylvania. The certificated private pilot of the PA-28 was not injured, and the airplane received minor damage. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed, and no flight plan had been filed for the local flight which was planned to be operated under 14 CFR Part 91.

In the NTSB Pilot/Operator Aviation Accident Report, the private pilot stated:

"I had completed a preflight inspection of PIPER N56639, VMC prevailed. I next conducted the pre-start checklist. The hand parking brake was in the activated position. I turned the engine over a few times, but it did not start...a Cessna 172, N6871H, taxied in and parked in the next space to my left the nose protruding forward of the nose of N56639. The pilot of the Cessna 172, a flight instructor, came aboard 56639 to assist me in starting the plane. I did not ask him to come aboard. The engine was subsequently started. The flight instructor then said good bye, got out onto the right wing of the PIPER, and shut the right door. The door was latched. The engine was at idle of 1,000 RPM. The instructor then proceeded to walk rapidly and deliberately toward the front of the right wing and jumped off of the leading edge of the wing and contacted the spinning prop...It took 1-2 seconds from the time that the flight instructor moved forward until the time he came in contact with the prop. I had no warning whatsoever that the flight instructor was going to deplane to the front...At no time did the PIPER N56639 move. It was stationary the entire time. The hand brake was deployed the entire time and remained as such after the accident. My feet were on the toe brakes as well. At the time of the accident a motor glider was taxiing from my right to left. The motor glider's left wing tip had just passed the center line of the PIPER and cleared the PIPER nose by about 2-3 feet. The Cessna to my left that come in was pulled forward ahead of the PIPER...The Cessna was protruding into the taxiway...."

Additional witnesses were interviewed by a police officer from the Limerick Police Department who reported that once on the ground, the flight instructor appeared to stumble forward into the propeller.

According to FAA records, the flight instructor had in excess of 300 hours.

An autopsy was conducted on May 12, 1997, by Halbert Fillinger, M.D., medical examiner for Montgomery county, Pennsylvania. A toxicological examination conducted by and independent laboratory, for Montgomery County was negative for drugs and alcohol.

NTSB Probable Cause

was the flight instructor's diverted attention while standing on the wing behind a turning propeller, which resulted in his departure from the wing, forward into the turning propeller.