BFO93LA163 · Piper PA-28-161
Prontoaire Piper PA-28-161 · Accident: loss of engine power en route
From Morrisville-Stowe State Airport (MVL) to CXR · Danbury, CT
Narrative check · The NTSB narrative appears to contradict this record's departure or destination. Values are shown as recorded, not corrected; compare with the narrative.
Event
- NTSB case
- BFO93LA163
- 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-28-161
- 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
- N6911C
- Operator
- Prontoaire
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route Narrative disagrees
- From Morrisville-Stowe State Airport (MVL), MORRISVILLE, VTTo CXR · Danbury, CT
- 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
- Loss of engine power
- 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
- Pilot in command › In-flight planning/decision, improper
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Stowe, VT, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
DURING CLIMB OUT FROM THE AIRPORT, THE AIRPLANE COLLIDED WITH TREES ABOUT 6.6 NAUTICAL MILES SOUTH OF THE AIRPORT AT AN ELEVATION OF 3400 FEET. ELEVATION OF THE DEPARTURE AIRPORT WAS 732 FEET. THE ACCIDENT OCCURRED AS THE PILOT WAS ATTEMPTING TO CROSS OVER A MOUNTAIN RIDGE AT ITS LOWEST POINT. ABOUT 30 MILES SOUTH AT BARRE/MONTPELIER, VT, THE WIND WAS FROM 210 DEG AT 6 KNOTS. THE PILOT REPORTED THAT WHEN THE AIRPLANE CAME CLOSE TO THE TOP OF THE MOUNTAIN RIDGE, THE AIRPLANE'S ENGINE LOST PARTIAL POWER. HE STATED THAT WHEN THE AIRPLANE CROSSED OVER THE TOP OF THE RIDGE, THE AIRPLANE'S UNDERCARRIAGE STRUCK TREE TOPS. THE AIRPLANE ROLLED RIGHT AND NOSED DOWN, COMING TO REST ON THE GROUND. A POST-IMPACT FIRE CONSUMED MUCH OF THE AIRPLANE. THERE WAS A TOTAL OF FOUR PERSONS ON BOARD, AND THE AIRPLANE'S FUEL TANKS WERE 'TOPPED OFF' BEFORE THE FLIGHT. ALSO, A LENTICULAR CLOUD WAS REPORTED OVER THE AREA. NO PREIMPACT PART FAILURE OR MALFUNCTION WAS FOUND THAT WOULD HAVE RESULTED IN THE REPORTED POWER LOSS.
Probable cause
THE PILOT'S IMPROPER IN-FLIGHT PLANNING/DECISION. A RELATED FACTOR IN THE ACCIDENT WAS: THE PARTIAL LOSS OF ENGINE POWER FOR AN UNDETERMINED REASON.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record BFO93LA163
- Event ID
- 20001211X13339
- Case number
- BFO93LA163
- 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: b1af23200ea3bf352883a8a27ee73cb713b9e4add906b1024523671c547ee30b; retrieved 2026-09-21T22:49:11.449Z.