BFO94FA140 · Piper PA-32R-300
Piper PA-32R-300 · Accident: total loss of engine power (mechanical failure) during initial climb
From Roanoke–Blacksburg Regional Airport (ROA) to 26B · Meadville, PA
Event
- NTSB case
- BFO94FA140
- 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
- 2 · 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-32R-300
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-32
- 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
- N4316X
- Operator
- Kulwicki, Joseph F. · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Roanoke–Blacksburg Regional Airport (ROA)To 26B · Meadville, PA
- 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
- Total loss of engine power (mechanical failure)
- 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
- Tree(s)
- 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
- Throttle/power lever, linkage › Disconnected
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Roanoke, VA, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
DURING TAKEOFF CLIMB, THE AIRPLANE'S ENGINE LOST POWER. DURING A TURN TO THE EMERGENCY LANDING AREA, THE AIRPLANE STRUCK TREES AND FELL TO THE GROUND. POSTACCIDENT EXAMINATION OF THE AIRFRAME AND FUEL SYSTEM DID NOT REVEAL ANY ANOMALIES. EXAMINATION OF THE ENGINE REVEALED THE THROTTLE CABLE WAS FULL FORWARD (MAXIMUM FUEL FLOW) BUT DISCONNECTED FROM THE THROTTLE ARM ON THE FUEL INJECTOR SERVO. THE THROTTLE ARM WAS IN THE IDLE POSITION. THE HARDWARE CONNECTING THE THROTTLE CABLE ROD END TO THE THROTTLE ARM WAS NOT LOCATED. EXAMINATION OF THE THROTTLE CABLE ROD END AND THROTTLE ARM REVEALED WEAR AROUND THE CIRCUMFERENCE OF THEIR ATTACHMENT HOLES. THE WEAR AROUND THE CIRCUMFERENCE OF THE ATTACHMENT HOLE ON THE THROTTLE ARM WAS CONSISTENT WITH INSTALLATION OF THE ROD END AT A SKEWED ANGLE. THE AIRPLANE RECEIVED AN ANNUAL INSPECTION ABOUT 99 HOURS PRIOR TO THE ACCIDENT.
Probable cause
THE DISCONNECTION OF THE THROTTLE CABLE FROM THE THROTTLE ARM ON THE FUEL INJECTOR SERVO.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record BFO94FA140
- Event ID
- 20001206X01951
- Case number
- BFO94FA140
- 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: b00217c49438ec28a7ca84973fe2ff8de7527dc19dc79c92ee71a4ec1ead08da; retrieved 2026-09-21T00:02:15.619Z.