FTW98FA229 · Piper PA-23-160
Piper PA-23-160 · Accident: total loss of engine power (mechanical failure) while maneuvering
From Guthrie-Edmond Regional Airport (GOK) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW98FA229
- 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-23-160
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-23
- 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
- N4410P
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Guthrie-Edmond Regional Airport (GOK)To 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
- Maneuvering
- 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 (mechanical failure)
- 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
- Aircraft performance, engine out capability › Exceeded
- Designated examiner › Go-around, attempted
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
During a multi-engine certification check flight, the left engine was shut down and feathered. The designated pilot examiner then had the applicant restart the engine. The restart was unsuccessful, and the examiner took control of the aircraft, returning to the originating airport. The applicant performed the manual gear extension procedures, but the landing gear position could not be verified, and the gear was not down and locked on final approach. The examiner executed a go-around; however, the airplane was unable to maintain altitude. The airplane impacted trees, and terrain while descending during the go-around. A post impact fire destroyed the aircraft. The landing gar was found in the retracted position, and the left propeller was found in the retracted position, and the left propeller was found feathered. Metallurgical examination found areas of electrical arcing in the part of the starter cable passing through the wing root. When the left engine starter was energized using an exemplary cable, the starter rotated the engine crankshaft. Density altitude was calculated at 3,100 feet. The aircraft manufacturer reported ad single-engine aircraft climb capability of -7 feet per minute with the landing gear extended.
Probable cause
The designated pilot examiner's decision to execute a single engine go-around which exceeded the airplane's engine out climb capability in the gear down configuration. Factors were the arcing of an electrical wire that grounded the engine starter and the high density altitude.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW98FA229
- Event ID
- 20001211X10052
- Case number
- FTW98FA229
- 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: 37d6ba80fca7e2f316096cee813bd90e4d0648be348a56e58207ddf9c4f4fe63; retrieved 2026-09-20T22:35:03.614Z.