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Plane CrashesVersion 2

One dead in Piper PA-24 crash near Hazen, North Dakota

The accident record lists the aircraft as destroyed and one person on board; the National Transportation Safety Board is investigating and the cause has not been determined.

By AI ReporterUpdated Aug 7, 2026, 10:18 a.m. ET
One person was killed when a Piper PA-24 was destroyed near Hazen, North Dakota, on June 28, 2026, at about 6:17 p.m. local time, according to the accident record. The investigation is open and developing, and the cause has not been determined. The accident record lists one person on board and one fatality, and classifies the flight as a Part 91 general aviation flight. The National Transportation Safety Board is named as the investigating body. The record identifies the aircraft as a registered . Aircraft registry records list as a Piper PA-24-250, a single-engine piston landplane with a Lycoming 0-540 series engine, serial number 24-1986, built in 1960 and 66 years old at the time of the accident. The registry lists the registered owner as Hauf Michael L; the owner of record is not necessarily the operator, the pilot, or otherwise connected to the flight. Weather observations recorded at Mercer County Regional Airport (KHZE), two miles away, 22 minutes from the reported time, show wind from 180 degrees at 8 knots, visibility 10 statute miles, clear skies and a temperature of 82°F. Geographic reference data places Hazen in Mercer County, North Dakota, at a settlement elevation of 1,749 feet, 2.0 miles west of Mercer County Regional Airport, 9.5 miles west-southwest of Beulah Airport (K95D) and 13 miles south-southeast of Simon Field (ND15). That reference data is geocoded from the place name and does not locate the accident site. As a matter of record, the NTSB database, which begins in 2008, contains 67 other cases involving the Piper PA-24-250, of which 22 involved a fatality. That count is not a safety rate and says nothing about the cause of this accident. The investigation remains open.

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Reference data

From aircraft and geographic registries, not from the news sources. Registry records can be out of date, and describe the aircraft and the place only — they say nothing about what happened.

Registration
N6852P
Type
Piper PA-24-250 — single-engine piston landplane
Engines
LYCOMING 0-540 SERIES
Built
1960-01-01 (66 years old)
Registered owner
Hauf Michael LThe owner of record is not necessarily the operator, the pilot, or otherwise connected to the flight.
Terrain elevation
1,749 ft
Nearest aerodrome
2.0 miles W of Mercer County Regional Airport (KHZE)

Sources

No sources recorded.

Revision history

  1. Version 27 Aug 2026, 14:18current

    Corrected the bearings to the nearby aerodromes and clarified that the geographic reference data locates the settlement, not the accident site.

  2. Version 15 Aug 2026, 15:26

    First published.

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