SEA97FA106 · Piper PA-28R-200
Piper PA-28R-200 · Accident: partial loss of engine power (non-mechanical) on approach
From Portland Mulino Airport (4S9) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- SEA97FA106
- 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-28R-200
- 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
- N55676
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Portland Mulino Airport (4S9), Mulino, ORTo not recorded
- 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
- 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
- Fuel starvation; 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 › Starvation
- Pilot in command › Fuel management, improper
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot flew to a local airport for lunch with the passenger. The airplane was full of fuel, and no problems had previously been reported with it. After lunch, the airplane returned to the departure airstrip. During approach, about 1/2-mile from the runway, the engine began to run rough as the airplane was about 200 feet above wooded terrain. The pilot reversed course and attempted a landing in an open field. The airplane struck trees and terrain as the engine began to regain power. The wreckage was subjected to a post-crash fire. Examination of the engine/airframe did not reveal any evidence of preimpact mechanical malfunction. Defoliated trees near the impact site of the left wing indicated the left fuel tank had a significant quantity of fuel at the time of impact. The lack of fuel, fire damage and hydraulic deformation of the right wing, which was found near an area of intense fire, indicated that the right fuel tank was almost empty. The fuel selector valve was found in the RIGHT or OFF position, and it does not have a BOTH selection. The airplane would have consumed more than the max usable capacity of either wing if used exclusively.
Probable cause
The pilot's failure to properly manage the aircraft fuel supply, which led to fuel exhaustion of the right tank and subsequent fuel starvation/power loss of the engine during the final approach. Factors contributing to the accident were the lack of sufficient altitude to effect a recovery, and the lack of suitable terrain for a successful forced landing.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record SEA97FA106
- Event ID
- 20001208X08012
- Case number
- SEA97FA106
- 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: 6b6a9216158b70d2683aeb316eb80bda4ef7fda976193ba323ea28609215486e; retrieved 2026-09-20T22:58:07.013Z.