BFO94LA062 · Piper PA-28-140
Piper PA-28-140 · Accident: loss of engine power en route
From Williamsburg Jamestown Airport (JGG) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- BFO94LA062
- 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-28-140
- 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
- N857DG
- Operator
- Raccuglia, Louis · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Williamsburg Jamestown Airport (JGG), Williamsburg, VATo 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
- En route · descent
- 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 exhaustion
- 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
- Fluid, fuel › Exhaustion
- Pilot in command › Preflight planning/preparation, inadequate
- Pilot in command › Refueling, not performed
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PILOT STATED THAT THE ENGINE BEGAN TO LOSE POWER AS THE AIRPLANE WAS DESCENDING FOR LANDING. REALIZING HE COULD NOT LAND AT THE INTENDED DESTINATION, THE PILOT EXECUTED A FORCED LANDING. DURING THE LANDING, THE AIRPLANE STRUCK A TREE STUMP AND WAS SUBSTANTIALLY DAMAGED. THE PILOT STATED THAT THE AIRPLANE HAD FLOWN AT LEAST 4.5 HOURS ON THREE SEPARATE FLIGHTS SINCE ITS LAST REFUELING. HE STATED THAT HE VISUALLY CHECKED THE FUEL LEVELS BEFORE THE ACCIDENT FLIGHT, BUT WAS UNABLE TO DETERMINE HOW MUCH FUEL WAS AVAILABLE. AN EXAMINATION OF THE ENGINE DID NOT REVEAL ANY EVIDENCE OF THE PRESENCE OF FUEL. THE EXAMINATION ALSO DID NOT REVEAL ANY EVIDENCE OF PRE-IMPACT MECHANICAL DEFICIENCIES. THE PILOT FLEW THE AIRPLANE UNTIL ALL USABLE FUEL WAS EXHAUSTED.
Probable cause
THE PILOT-IN-COMMAND'S FAILURE TO PERFORM ADEQUATE PRE-FLIGHT INSPECTIONS AND PLANNING FOR THE FLIGHT, AND HIS FAILURE TO REFUEL THE AIRPLANE. THIS LED TO FUEL EXHAUSTION OF THE ENGINE AND A FORCED LANDING.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record BFO94LA062
- Event ID
- 20001206X01046
- Case number
- BFO94LA062
- 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: be09810306e596bbd98ee9245b350d9f9cce4786ea86515289133a7401f3011d; retrieved 2026-09-23T01:11:52.131Z.