N21480 — 1978 Piper PA-28-161

Aircraft record

Serial number

28-7916043

Manufacturer

Piper

Model

PA-28-161

Year

1978

Category

Fixed wing single-engine

Engine

Lycoming 0-320 Series

Registration

Deregistered

View the FAA registry record for N21480 →

Accident & incident history

1. ERA23FA164Mar 25, 2023Johns Island, SCFatal · 1 fatal

   The pilot’s decision to continue flight under visual flight rules into instrument meteorological conditions, which resulted in the pilot’s spatial disorientation and loss of control. Contributing to the accident was the pilot’s degraded judgement and performance due to fatigue.

Registration timeline

Ownership and registration events for this airframe (the 1978 Piper PA-28-161).

1. Oct 21, 2023deregistered — Patterson Andrew F

Earlier aircraft on this N-number

The tail number N21480 was previously assigned to different aircraft. A registration number can be reused across unrelated airframes over decades — these are not the 1978 Piper PA-28-161 above.

• until Apr 6, 19731972 Cessna 182P (s/n 18261659)
• until Apr 16, 19511938 Piper J-3 (s/n 2327)

Frequently asked

Has N21480 been in an accident?

Yes. N21480 appears in 1 NTSB accident record, the most recent in 2023.

What kind of aircraft is N21480?

N21480 is a 1978 Piper PA-28-161 (fixed wing single-engine), serial number 28-7916043.

Has N21480 been in a fatal accident?

An NTSB record for N21480 (ERA23FA164) is classified with a fatal highest injury level.