NYC94LA137 · Piper PA-28-140
Piper PA-28-140 · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) on approach
From Provincetown Municipal Airport (PVC) to Augusta State Airport (AUG)
Narrative check · The NTSB narrative appears to contradict this record's departure or destination. Values are shown as recorded, not corrected; compare with the narrative.
Event
- NTSB case
- NYC94LA137
- 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
- N32925
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route Possible conflict
- From Provincetown Municipal Airport (PVC), Provincetown, MATo Augusta State Airport (AUG), ME
- 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
- Approach · VFR pattern final
- 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
- Total loss of engine power (non-mechanical)
- 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
- Substantial
Cause areas
- Pilot in command › Fuel tank selector position, improper
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Augusta, ME, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
THE PILOT DID A MISSED APPROACH AT HIS PLANNED DESTINATION DUE TO WEATHER AND FLEW TO THE ALTERNATE AIRPORT WHERE THE ENGINE LOST POWER IN THE TRAFFIC PATTERN. ACCORDING TO THE THE PILOT, HE WAS IN A LEFT PATTERN FOR RUNWAY 17 WHEN HE NOTICED HE WAS TOO LOW DURING THE FINAL LEG. HE ADVANCED THE THROTTLE, BUT THE ENGINE DID NOT RESPOND. HE DID A FORCED LANDING, DURING WHICH THE AIRPLANE COLLIDED WITH AN EMBANKMENT, AND CAME TO REST 250 FEET SHORT OF THE RUNWAY. EXAMINATION OF THE AIRPLANE REVEALED 20 TO 22 GALLONS OF FUEL IN THE RIGHT TANK, THE LEFT TANK HAD LESS THAN A GALLON. THE FUEL SELECTOR SWITCH WAS POSITIONED FOR THE LEFT TANK.
Probable cause
The improper positioning of the fuel selector because of inadequate inflight decision/planning which resulted in fuel exhaustion and the loss of engine power.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record NYC94LA137
- Event ID
- 20001206X01848
- Case number
- NYC94LA137
- 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: local date, investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 1994-07-25.
- API snapshot SHA-256: fa2a096c544091c108d93dd465e2afa7bf7bbedbf74e9fc5c34c38f05fbfa137; retrieved 2026-09-21T22:33:26.689Z.