ATL92LA140 · Piper PA-30
Piper PA-30 · Accident: airframe, component or system failure en route
From N52 · Somerville, NJ to 49J · Hilton Head Island, SC
Narrative check · The NTSB narrative appears to contradict this record's location. Values are shown as recorded, not corrected; compare with the narrative.
Event
- NTSB case
- ATL92LA140
- 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-30
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-30
- 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
- N160MJ
- Operator
- Mcviegh, Stana J. · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From N52 · Somerville, NJTo 49J · Hilton Head Island, SC
- 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 · 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
- Airframe, component or system failure
- 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
- 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
- Fuel system, tank › Deteriorated
- Fuel system, tank › Leak
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Shallotte, NC, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
THE AIRPLANE WAS REFUELED THE DAY BEFORE THE FLIGHT AND THE FUEL TANKS WERE CHECKED AGAIN DURING THE PREFLIGHT INSPECTION. THE FLIGHT DEPARTED SOMERVILLE, NEW JERSEY, WITH 90 GALLONS OF FUEL ON BOARD. THE PILOT COMPUTED 16 GALLONS OF FUEL USAGE PER HOUR AND ABOUT 5 HOURS OF FUEL ENDURANCE. ABOUT 2+45 HOURS INTO THE FLIGHT THE PILOT SWITCHED FUEL TANKS AND IMMEDIATELY HE NOTICED A FASTER THAN NORMAL DROP ON THE FUEL QUANTITY GAUGE. THE PILOT INFORMED ATC AT MYRTLE BEACH OF HIS FUEL STATUS, AND ELECTED TO LAND AT MYRTLE BEACH FOR FUEL. BOTH ENGINES QUIT AND THE PILOT MADE A FORCED LANDING IN A FIELD ABOUT 3 MILES FROM THE AIRPORT. THERE WAS NO FUEL FOUND IN THE FUEL TANKS WHEN THE AIRPLANE WAS EXAMINED AT THE ACCIDENT SITE AND THERE WERE NO OBVIOUS SIGNS OF FUEL LEAKAGE FROM THE FUEL TANKS AT THE ACCIDENT SITE OR FUEL STAINS ON THE AIRPLANE. HOWEVER, WHILE CONDUCTING AIRFRAME REPAIRS, THE REPAIR FACILITY DISCOVERED A SUBSTANTIAL FUEL LEAK FROM THE LEFT MAIN FUEL CELL. CRACKS, TYPICAL OF AGING, WERE DISCOVERED IN THE INBOARD CORNERS OF THE FUEL BLADDER WHEN IT WAS REMOVED FROM THE AIRPLANE. THE BLADDER WAS MANUFACTURED BY PIPER IN 1980.
Probable cause
THE DETERIORATION OF THE LEFT MAIN FUEL BLADDER WHICH RESULTED IN THE PREMATURE EXHAUSTION OF THE FUEL SUPPLY AND THE LOSS OF ENGINE POWER. A FACTOR WAS SOFT TERRAIN.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ATL92LA140
- Event ID
- 20001211X15043
- Case number
- ATL92LA140
- 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: aeaad1c23f82cb8548518f5b5201c0042f5e54a54f2f4e0c6c1d26b3c93be4c9; retrieved 2026-09-23T02:56:17.595Z.