FTW98LA055 · Piper PA-32RT-300T PA-32RT-30
Piper PA-32RT-300T PA-32RT-30 · Accident: airframe, component or system failure en route
From AAP · Houston, TX to F54 · Arlington, TX
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW98LA055
- 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-32RT-300T PA-32RT-30
- 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
- N21433
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From AAP · Houston, TXTo F54 · Arlington, TX
- 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 · descent
- 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
- Airframe, component or system failure
- 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
- Engine compartment › Fire
- Fluid, fuel › Leak
- Fuel system, line › Fatigue
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The aircraft was descending from 8,500 feet, when the pilot 'felt the airplane shutter and begin to sound slightly rough.' The pilot observed that the manifold pressure had dropped 'slightly,' and the fuel flow gauge dropped from '21 to 10 gph.' The pilot maintained a 'slow' descent, turned the boost pump on, and switched to a different fuel tank. There was an increase in engine manifold pressure, and the fuel flow increased to 15 gph. Smoke entered the cockpit as the airplane descended through 2,500 feet, and the pilot 'noticed flames coming from the engine cowling vents.' The pilot initiated a forced landing to a grass field. During the landing roll, the left wing struck a tree, and the airplane went through two fences, crossed a road, then came to rest in a plowed field. Examination of the engine revealed that the #2 cylinder fuel injector line had broken, and 'sprayed fuel onto the turbocharger.' Examination of the fuel injector line revealed that the separation was the result of fatigue cracking which initiated from a damaged area on the fuel line. Airworthiness Directive 93-02-05 (which required an inspection of the fuel injector fuel lines) was complied with 39 flight hours before the accident.
Probable cause
fatigue failure of the #2 cylinder fuel injection line in an area where the line was previously damaged, which resulted in an in-flight engine compartment fire and a forced landing. Related factors were: the previous damage of the fuel injector line, and the lack of suitable terrain for the forced landing.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW98LA055
- Event ID
- 20001208X09181
- Case number
- FTW98LA055
- 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: 5b873dab2e50df700583ac175fb1cf1a951dabee801ebc8ee735edbf5eb56a2e; retrieved 2026-09-21T21:03:53.683Z.