NYC94FA004 · Piper PA-23-250
Piper PA-23-250 · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) on approach
From Long Island MacArthur Airport (ISP) to Long Island MacArthur Airport (ISP)
Event
- NTSB case
- NYC94FA004
- 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-23-250
- 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
- N10GL
- Operator
- Roy I. Arroll · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Long Island MacArthur Airport (ISP), Islip, NYTo Long Island MacArthur Airport (ISP)
- 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
- Approach
- 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
- 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
- Dual student › Propeller feathering, inadvertent
- Pilot in command(cfi) › Remedial action, not attained
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE FLIGHT, INVOLVING AN INSTRUCTOR AND STUDENT, CRASHED IN A WOODED AREA ABOUT A MILE SOUTHEAST OF RUNWAY 28 AT EAST HAMPTON AIRPORT. THE PILOT RADIOED 10 MILES WEST OF THE AIRPORT, REQUESTED, AND RECEIVED AIRPORT ADVISORIES. NO OTHER KNOWN RADIO CALLS WERE MADE BY THE PILOT. A WITNESS NEAR THE ACCIDENT SITE, FIRST HEARD AN AIRPLANE; LATER, HE HEARD THE ENGINE SOUNDS STOP. AFTER ABOUT ANOTHER 40 SECONDS, HE HEARD THE SOUND OF A CRASH. AN INVESTIGATION REVEALED THAT BOTH PROPELLERS WERE FEATHERED; AN EXAMINATION OF THE AIRPLANE DID NOT DISCLOSE EVIDENCE OF MECHANICAL MALFUNCTION. THE STUDENT WAS A 3500 HOUR COMMERCIAL CERTIFICATED PILOT WHO WAS TRAINING FOR A MULTIENGINE RATING. THE INVESTIGATION ALSO REVEALED THAT ON PREVIOUS TRAINING FLIGHTS, THE STUDENT HAD DEMONSTRATED A LACK OF PROFICIENCY IN THE PERFORMANCE OF SIMULATED INSTRUMENT AND EMERGENCY PROCEDURES. ALSO, THE INVESTIGATION REVEALED THAT THE STUDENT HAD PREVIOUSLY FLOWN A BEECH 95, WHICH HAD REVERSE PLACEMENT OF THROTTLES, PROPS, AND MIXTURE CONTROLS.
Probable cause
INADVERTENT FEATHERING OF BOTH PROPELLERS BY THE STUDENT PILOT, WHICH RESULTED IN A LOSS OF POWER, AND FAILURE (OR INABILITY) OF THE INSTRUCTOR PILOT (CFI) TO ATTAIN REMEDIAL ACTION. A FACTOR RELATED TO THE ACCIDENT WAS: THE STUDENT PILOT'S HABIT INTERFERENCE, CONCERNING THE DIFFERENT POSITION OF THE ENGINE CONTROLS IN THIS AIRPLANE, AS COMPARED THE THE PREVIOUS AIRPLANE THAT HE HAD FLOWN.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record NYC94FA004
- Event ID
- 20001211X13624
- Case number
- NYC94FA004
- 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: 1ba64586cc7b9cf99885d877dadd2906badd3653c5f5b31fa11684348f3e5a02; retrieved 2026-09-21T00:21:42.824Z.