CHI93FA161 · Piper PA-28-140
Piper PA-28-140 · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) during initial climb
From an unrecorded airport to Salem Municipal Airport (I83)
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI93FA161
- 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
- 1 · 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-28-140
- 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
- N2487T
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo Salem Municipal Airport (I83), Salem, IN
- 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
- Initial climb
- 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 (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
- Stall
- 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
- Pilot in command › Airspeed, not maintained
- Pilot in command › Preflight planning/preparation, inadequate
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE STUDENT PILOT OPERATING HIS OWN AIRPLANE WAS EN ROUTE TO TAKE A DUAL FLYING LESSON WHEN HE EXPEREIENCED A LOSS OF ENGINE POWER. INITIALLY HE SET UP FOR A FORCED LANDING; HOWEVER, THE ENGINE REGAINED POWER AND HE INITIATED A CLIMB ABOUT THE TIME A SECOND POWER LOSS WAS SUFFERED. THE AIRPLANE DEPARTED CONTROLLED FLIGHT AND IMPACTED THE TERRAIN. SUBSEQUENT EXAMINATION FOUND A CONTAMINATED FUEL SYSTEM. THE STUDENT'S INSTRUCTOR STATED THAT HE HAD NEVER OBSERVED THE STUDENT DRAINING SUMPS. A NON-RATED MECHANIC WHO WORKED ON THE AIRPLANE TWICE WHEN THE COMPLAINT WAS A ROUGH RUNNING ENGINE, DID NOT DRAIN THE FUEL SUMPS.
Probable cause
THE PILOT-IN-COMMAND'S INADEQUATE PREFLIGHT PREPARATIONS AND HIS FAILURE TO MAINTAIN AIRSPEED. FACTORS WERE THE INSTRUCTOR'S INADEQUATE TRAINING OF THE PILOT-IN-COMMAND, UNQUALIFIED MAINTENANCE PERSONNEL'S INADEQUATE INSPECTION OF THE AIRCRAFT AND THE CONTAMINATED FUEL.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI93FA161
- Event ID
- 20001211X12338
- Case number
- CHI93FA161
- 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: 36f512570e6c4b1c8faca8f0f6adaa40ff4f64703c07ea4d8d564488ce2c2213; retrieved 2026-09-21T00:34:28.732Z.