IAD99LA026 · Piper PA-30
Piper PA-30 · Accident: loss of engine power en route
From Martin State Airport (MTN) to Roanoke–Blacksburg Regional Airport (ROA)
Event
- NTSB case
- IAD99LA026
- Event typeAccident: someone killed or seriously injured, or the aircraft substantially damaged (NTSB definition). Incident: an occurrence that affected or could have affected safety, short of that. Glossary
- Accident
- InvestigationHow far the investigation had got when the record was published: preliminary, ongoing, final or completed. Unknown where the source does not say. Glossary
- Completed
- API-reported fatalities
- 0 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- 0
- OperationWhat kind of flying it was, grouped by the rules it flew under: airline (US Part 121), air taxi and commuter (Part 135), general aviation (Part 91 and similar), military or government. Glossary
- General aviation
- WeatherVisual meteorological conditions (VMC): good enough to fly by looking outside. Instrument conditions (IMC): cloud or low visibility, flying by instruments. Glossary
- Visual Meteorological Cond
Piper PA-30
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-30
- Category
- Airplane
- RegistrationThe aircraft's tail number, such as N12345 or G-ABCD. Registrations are reissued, so the same one years apart can be a different aircraft. Glossary
- N3TH
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Martin State Airport (MTN), Baltimore, MDTo Roanoke–Blacksburg Regional Airport (ROA), Roanoke, VA
- Aircraft age
- Not recorded
- Flight rulesThe regulations the flight operated under: in the US, Part 91 (general aviation), Part 121 (airlines), Part 135 (air taxi and commuter) and others; for flights abroad, the NTSB's coarser commercial or non-commercial code. Glossary
- Part 91: General Aviation
- Phase of flightThe stage of the flight when things started to go wrong: standing, taxi, takeoff, initial climb, en route, maneuvering, approach or landing. Glossary
- En route · cruise
- First occurrenceThe single coded event the NTSB judges best describes what happened (records from 2008 on). Older records name the first occurrence in the sequence instead. Glossary
- Loss of engine power
- Also codedOther events the NTSB coded in the sequence, such as a wire strike after a loss of power. Flight Findings uses them for its kinds of event. Glossary
- Fuel starvation
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Destroyed
Cause areas
- Fluid, fuel › Starvation
- Fuel system, filter › Ice
- Owner/pilot mechanic › Maintenance, service bulletin/letter, not complied with
- Pilot in command › Fuel tank selector position, improper
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The airplane was in cruise flight at 6,000 feet in below zero temperatures when the right engine stopped producing power. The pilot entered a left-hand orbit and attempted an engine restart. After several orbits, the left engine stopped producing power. The pilot completed a forced landing to a field that destroyed the airplane. Examination of the wreckage revealed evidence of fuel at the scene with the left fuel selector in the 'Auxiliary' position and the right selector in the 'Main' position. The right fuel selector filter element bowl could not be freed after removal of the mount screws. The bowl was pried free and the filter element screens were found completely occluded with ice. An FAA Airworthiness Directive (AD), 'To eliminate water contamination of the aircraft fuel supply', that mandated compliance every 50 hours of operation, had not been complied with in 16 calendar months and 234 hours of operation. The Owner's Handbook stated auxiliary fuel and tip tank fuel should be used in level flight only, and that the single engine service ceiling was approximately 5,800 feet, at maximum gross weight. Both engines started and ran to rated power in a test cell.
Probable cause
The owner's failure to comply with the Airworthiness Directive and the subsequent fuel system filter blockage by ice leading to fuel starvation and power loss of the right engine. Additionally, the pilot's improper selection of the left auxiliary fuel tank position and the subsequent fuel starvation and power loss of the left engine. Contributing factors were low temperature (below freezing) conditions and the pilot's failure to follow procedures delineated in the Owner's Handbook.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record IAD99LA026
- Event ID
- 20001204X00065
- Case number
- IAD99LA026
- Dataset
- historical-pre2008
- Source SHA-256
- 89e2df6d848e7ab3b42e7d7c7a03ff403303057a26ca04c95b3ea67201c3ce74
Source notes (4)
- Unreviewed is an editorial label, not an investigation status. API-sourced is not report-checked or human-reviewed. Explicit event totals are used without summing aircraft injury tables; onboard allocation is withheld. Unknown values remain unknown. The operation category is mapped from the NTSB-reported FAR part and has not been reviewed.
- Filled from the NTSB case API where the bulk record had no value: investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date, which is the same as the UTC date the NTSB stores.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 470c3d97aaa38d61cd9ce0b21eef8cede36bfb377eeccf35501246d3f455475b; retrieved 2026-09-21T11:15:30.386Z.