CHI94LA060 · Piper PA-28-160
Piper PA-28-160 · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) during initial climb
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI94LA060
- 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-28-160
- 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
- N5894W
- Operator
- Michael J. Lyter · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo 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
- 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
- Fuel contamination; 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, improper
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
PRIOR TO DEPARTURE, THE ACCIDENT AIRPLANE HAD BEEN KEPT IN A HEATED HANGAR DUE TO THE BELOW ZERO TEMPERATURES. THE PILOT STATED HE TOOK FUEL SAMPLES FROM THE AIRPLANE'S FUEL TANK SUMPS WHILE THE AIRPLANE WAS IN THE HANGAR. SHORTLY AFTER THE AIRPLANE WAS REMOVED FROM THE HANGAR THE PILOT TAXIED OUT FOR TAKEOFF. DURING THE INITIAL CLIMB, THE PILOT REPORTED, THE ENGINE STOPPED RUNNING. HE STATED HE PERFORMED A TURN BACK TOWARD THE AIRPORT TO LAND ON A CROSS RUNWAY. WHILE IN THE TURN THE AIRPLANE STALLED AND SUBSEQUENTLY COLLIDED WITH THE GROUND. AN ON-SCENE INVESTIGATION FOUND ICE CRYSTALS IN THE FUEL SAMPLE REMOVED FROM THE RIGHT WING'S FUEL TANK.
Probable cause
an improper preflight by the pilot-in-command and the pilot's failure to maintain airspeed during a turn. A factor associated with the accident was contaminated fuel.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI94LA060
- Event ID
- 20001211X13845
- Case number
- CHI94LA060
- 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: 0ec0c8b0f6fabf8b741722f2dc33248e54606f96f3f36b627560ee6f9b39f59e; retrieved 2026-09-21T22:44:17.352Z.