ATL97LA074 · Piper PA-28-151
Piper PA-28-151 · Accident: partial loss of engine power (non-mechanical) en route
From Hickory Regional Airport (HKY) to Raleigh-Durham International Airport (RDU)
Event
- NTSB case
- ATL97LA074
- 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-28-151
- 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
- N8392C
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Hickory Regional Airport (HKY), Hickory, NCTo Raleigh-Durham International Airport (RDU), Raleigh, NC
- 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
- Partial 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
- Substantial
Cause areas
- Induction air control/system › Blocked(partial)
- Pilot in command › Proper touchdown point, not attained
- Unknown › Maintenance, improper
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
While flying at 3000 feet, the pilot noted a drop in engine RPM from 2200 to approximately 700. Since level flight could not be maintained, the pilot selected a nearby private airstrip and attempted an emergency landing. The airplane bounced as it touched down on the sod runway, and the pilot noticed an increase in engine rpm. He realized that he could not get the airplane down before the end of the runway; he then elected to attempt a go-around. The airplane climbed to the height of trees on the departure end of the runway and settled into the trees. Examination of the airplane disclosed that electrical tape was lodged in the carburetor induction system. The examination also disclosed that someone had wrapped black electrical tape around the flexible duct material between the induction air filter and the carburetor. A review of approved aircraft maintenance procedures failed to disclose a repair procedure that would allow the use of electrical tape to repair the air duct. A review of normal aircraft performance data disclosed that approximately 600 feet of ground roll was needed for a landing; approximately 1,200 feet of runway was needed to land over a 50 foot obstacle. The pilot reported that the sod runway was 2,070 feet long.
Probable cause
improper maintenance performed by an unknown person, which resulted in the reduction of airflow through the engine induction system and subsequent loss of engine power. A factor related to the accident was: failure of the pilot to attain a proper touchdown point on the runway for a successful forced landing.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ATL97LA074
- Event ID
- 20001208X07853
- Case number
- ATL97LA074
- 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: 60489e46601f63091a5cb124416d51de89b00095fdcccfaa85357965be6ecb20; retrieved 2026-09-22T19:36:16.310Z.