NYC93FA066 · Piper PA-23-250
Piper PA-23-250 · Accident: partial loss of engine power (mechanical failure) en route
From Teterboro Airport (TEB) to Allegheny County Airport (AGC)
Event
- NTSB case
- NYC93FA066
- 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
- 6 · 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
- Instrument Meteorological Cond
Piper PA-23-250
- 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
- N6382Y
- Operator
- Alan B. Fleischman · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Teterboro Airport (TEB), TETERBORO, NJTo Allegheny County Airport (AGC), Pittsburgh, PA
- 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 · climb to 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 (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
- Stall/spin
- 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
- Fuel system, nozzle › Blocked(partial)
- Other maintenance personnel › Maintenance, annual inspection, inadequate
- Pilot in command › Airspeed(vmc), not maintained
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Elmwood Park, NJ, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
DURING AN INSTRUMENT CLIMB-OUT FROM TETERBORO AIRPORT, THE PILOT WAS ADVISED BY DEPARTURE CONTROL THAT HE WAS IN RADAR CONTACT, AND TO CLIMB & MAINTAIN 4000 FT. THE PILOT ACKNOWLEDGED THIS TRANSMISSION AT A RADAR RECORDED ALTITUDE OF 1800 FT MSL. THE FLIGHT WAS RECORDED REACHING AN ALTITUDE OF 2800 FT MSL BEFORE STARTING A DESCENT. NUMEROUS WITNESSES OBSERVED THE AIRPLANE DESCENDING OUT OF THE CLOUDS; ONE WITNESS DESCRIBED THE DESCENT AS A SPIN WITH NO FORWARD MOTION. ON-SCENE WRECKAGE EXAMINATION OF THE LEFT PROP SHOWED ONE BLADE BENT AFT APRX 120 DEG; OTHER BLADE STRAIGHT & NOT BENT. PROP WAS NOT IN FEATHERED POSITION. LEFT ENG TEARDOWN REVEALED 2 OF 6 FUEL INJECTOR NOZZLES RESTRICTED. LAST DOCUMENTED FUEL INJECTION SYSTEM CLEANING WAS IN 1985; BENDIX (MANUFACTURER) RECOMMENDS EVERY ANNUAL INSPECTION OR 100 HRS. THE AIRPLANE WAS 188 LBS OVER MAX GROSS WEIGHT; CG APRX 1 INCH AFT OF MAX AFT LIMIT. AFT CG INCREASES VMC AIRSPEED.
Probable cause
INADEQUATE MAINTENANCE AND INSPECTION OF THE FUEL INJECTOR SYSTEM RESULTING IN A LOSS OF POWER OF THE LEFT ENGINE, AND THE FAILURE OF THE PILOT TO MAINTAIN MINIMUM CONTROL SPEED WHICH RESULTED IN A FLAT SPIN. A FACTOR WHICH CONTRIBUTED TO THE ACCIDENT WAS THE PILOT LOADING THE AIRPLANE OVER THE MAXIMUM GROSS WEIGHT AND BEYOND THE AFT CENTER OF GRAVITY LIMIT, THUS RAISING THE MINIMUM CONTROL SPEED.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record NYC93FA066
- Event ID
- 20001211X12034
- Case number
- NYC93FA066
- 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: 9b094e60c2e612d7e63fffbceac37cb1a9026d3503791a20ed88605ab82f7b32; retrieved 2026-09-21T00:39:11.561Z.