NYC99LA045 · Piper PA-28-161
Piper PA-28-161 · Accident: loss of engine power during initial climb
From Lawrence Municipal Airport (LWM) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- NYC99LA045
- 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-28-161
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-28
- 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
- N9683C
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Lawrence Municipal Airport (LWM), Lawrence, MATo not recorded
- 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
- Initial climb
- 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
- Stall
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Substantial
Cause areas
- Fuel system, primer system › Unlocked
- Pilot in command › Checklist, not complied with
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Methuen, MA, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
The pilot reported a loss of power during the initial climb after takeoff. A witness who observed the airplane depart stated 'the engine didn't sound right,' and the airplane just barley cleared the trees located at the end of the runway. During a turn back towards the airport, the airplane pitched down and impacted trees. Examination of the wreckage did not disclose any pre-impact mechanical malfunctions of the airframe or engine. The airplane was equipped with a manual 3-point primer system. Spark plugs removed from the three cylinders which contained primer lines revealed a 'heavy coat of black sooty material' present on the electrodes. The spark plug removed from the cylinder which did not contain a primer line was 'clean.' Additionally, the primer control in the cockpit was observed in a forward, but unlocked position. Except for a 1.8 hour check out in the airplane, all 270 hours of flight experience the pilot had logged since August 1996, were in turbine powered airplanes. Review of the airplane's operating handbook, revealed that part of the 'Normal Procedures, Before Takeoff' checklist, included the item, 'Primer...locked.'
Probable cause
The pilot's failure to ensure the engine primer was in and locked prior to takeoff which resulted in a loss of engine power. A factor in this accident was the pilot's lack of experience in airplanes equipped with reciprocating engines.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record NYC99LA045
- Event ID
- 20001204X00102
- Case number
- NYC99LA045
- 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: 3768d4c59f167b910bf6d962106f889f4c780a65487b2be2ecfc94e32d9d4424; retrieved 2026-09-21T11:15:45.331Z.