ATL94LA033 · Piper PA-28-181
Enterprise Seven Leasing Piper PA-28-181 · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) en route
From Capital City Airport (CXY) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- ATL94LA033
- 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-28-181
- 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
- N2205Z
- Operator
- Enterprise Seven Leasing
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Capital City Airport (CXY), Harrisburg, PATo 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
- En route · descent
- 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
- Fuel exhaustion; 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
- Substantial
Cause areas
- Fluid, fuel › Exhaustion
- Pilot in command › In-flight planning/decision, improper
- Pilot in command › Refueling, not performed
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of North Myrtle Beach, SC, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
THE PRIVATE PILOT WAS CLEARED TO LAND WITH THE RUNWAY IN SIGHT WHEN THE ENGINE BEGAN TO SPUTTER. HE SWITCHED TANKS AND THE ENGINE RECOVERED MOMENTARILY, THEN BEGAN TO SPUTTER AGAIN. THE ENGINE EVENTUALLY QUIT, AND A FORCED LANDING WAS ATTEMPTED IN A FIELD. THE AIRCRAFT COLLIDED WITH THE TOPS OF SOME TREES, THEN LANDED IN THE FIELD. THE LANDING GEAR COLLAPSED, AND THE AIRCRAFT CAME TO A STOP. THE DURATION OF THE FLIGHT WAS ABOUT 3 HOURS AND 43 MINUTES. AN FAA INSPECTOR REPORTED THAT BOTH FUEL TANKS WERE FOUND TO BE EMPTY OF FUEL. WHEN ELECTRICAL POWER WAS APPLIED TO THE AIRCRAFT, BOTH FUEL TANK GAUGES INDICATED ZERO GALLONS.
Probable cause
THE PILOT'S IMPROPER INFLIGHT DECISION IN THAT HE FAILED TO REFUEL THE AIRCRAFT PRIOR TO EXHAUSTING THE FUEL SUPPLY. A FACTOR WAS THE SOFT TERRAIN AT THE FORCED LANDING SITE.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ATL94LA033
- Event ID
- 20001211X13824
- Case number
- ATL94LA033
- 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: 7a7f6860b56f8cde96ec6a181f8d939916c90ba31fa4e1ebfc1e6a0f0a48c8e6; retrieved 2026-09-23T01:24:52.037Z.