NYC95LA143 · Piper PA-28-181
Shoreline Aviation Piper PA-28-181 · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) en route
From 3B2 to 3B2
Event
- NTSB case
- NYC95LA143
- 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-28-181
- 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
- N9143Y
- Operator
- Shoreline Aviation
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From 3B2To 3B2
- 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 · cruise
- 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
- 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
- Pilot in command › Fuel consumption calculations, inaccurate
- Pilot in command › Preflight planning/preparation, improper
- Pilot in command › Refueling, not performed
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Marshfield, MA, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
DURING THE SOLO CROSS COUNTRY FLIGHT, THE STUDENT PILOT PERFORMED A TOUCH AND GO LANDING AT THE DESTINATION AIRPORT AND STARTED TO RETURN TO THE DEPARTURE AIRPORT. DURING THE RETURN TRIP, THE ENGINE LOST TOTAL POWER, AND THE PILOT PERFORMED A FORCED LANDING. THE PILOT STATED, '...I PROCEEDED BACK [TO MARSHFIELD] AND RAN OUT OF FUEL APPROXIMATELY 3 MILES SHORT OF THE RUNWAY....' ADDITIONALLY, THE PILOT REPORTED THAT THE ACCIDENT COULD HAVE BEEN PREVENTED BY 'REFUELING.' THE FAA INSPECTOR'S STATEMENT STATED, '...NO EVIDENCE OF FUEL LEAKAGE AT THE SCENE....' ADDITIONALLY, APPROXIMATELY 2 GALLONS OF FUEL WERE FOUND, WHICH CONSISTED OF 1 GALLON IN EACH, THE RIGHT AND LEFT, FUEL TANK.
Probable cause
the pilot's improper preflight planning/preparation, inaccurate fuel consumption calculations and failure to refuel, resulting in fuel exhaustion and a subsequent collision with trees during the forced landing.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record NYC95LA143
- Event ID
- 20001207X04048
- Case number
- NYC95LA143
- 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: a16dac07d6fcb8a518000bc8c98edbe941115d3d26c38133753d905e58138507; retrieved 2026-09-22T23:39:33.082Z.