NYC95FA068 · Piper PA-32-260
Piper PA-32-260 · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) on approach
From 4A7 · Hampton, GA to Newport News Williamsburg International Airport (PHF)
Event
- NTSB case
- NYC95FA068
- 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
- 3 · 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-32-260
- 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
- N57326
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From 4A7 · Hampton, GATo Newport News Williamsburg International Airport (PHF), Newport News, 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
- Approach
- 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 exhaustion; 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
- Fluid, fuel › Exhaustion
- Pilot in command › Aircraft preflight, inadequate
- Pilot in command › In-flight planning/decision, improper
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
BEFORE DEPARTING FROM HAMPTON, GA, THE PILOT REQUESTED THAT THE TWO MAIN TANKS AND TWO AUX TANKS BE 'TOPPED'; HOWEVER, THE REFUELER STATED THAT ONLY THE MAINS WERE FILLED. EN ROUTE, THE PILOT BECAME AWARE OF A LOW FUEL CONDITION. A PASSENGER STATED THAT THE PILOT CONSIDERED LANDING AT RALEIGH-DURHAM FOR FUEL, BUT HAVING A RADIO PROBLEM, HE CONTINUED THE FLIGHT TOWARD THE DESTINATION (NEWPORT NEWS, VA). LATER, HE DECIDED TO DIVERT TO SUFFOLK, VA, BUT THE ENGINE LOST POWER ABOUT 5 MILES FROM THE SUFFOLK MUNICIPAL AIRPORT. SUBSEQUENTLY, THE AIRPLANE STRUCK TREES AS THE PILOT WAS MANEUVERING TO LAND IN A FIELD AT NIGHT. NO EVIDENCE OF FUEL WAS FOUND AT THE SCENE. A TOXICOLOGY TEST OF THE PILOT'S BLOOD SHOWED THAT IT CONTAINED 0.048 MCG/ML OF CHLORPHENIRAMINE (OVER-THE-COUNTER ANTIHISTAMINE). CHLORPHENIRAMINE AND PHENYLPROPANOLAMINE (OVER-THE-COUNTER DECONGESTANT) WERE ALSO DETECTED IN HIS URINE. CHLORPHENIRAMINE IS A CENTRAL NERVOUS SYSTEM DEPRESSANT THAT COULD CAUSE DROWSINESS AND IS NOT APPROVED FOR USE WHILE FLYING.
Probable cause
THE PILOT'S INADEQUATE PREFLIGHT AND IMPROPER IN-FLIGHT PLANNING/DECISION, WHICH RESULTED IN FUEL EXHAUSTION. DARKNESS WAS A FACTOR RELATED TO THE IMPROPER PLANNING/DECISION-MAKING FOR THE EMERGENCY LANDING.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record NYC95FA068
- Event ID
- 20001207X03174
- Case number
- NYC95FA068
- 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 1995-03-13.
- API snapshot SHA-256: bec2e5bbddcc1483f583e32984b6690aca7158a84f979a3d58bfd32fbab8d7ac; retrieved 2026-09-20T23:51:02.952Z.