NYC92LA036 · Piper PA-31-T1040 PA-31-T104
Southern Cross Aviation Piper PA-31-T1040 PA-31-T104 · Accident: airframe, component or system failure en route
From Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR) to Bangor International Airport (BGR)
Event
- NTSB case
- NYC92LA036
- 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
- Instrument Meteorological Cond
Piper PA-31-T1040 PA-31-T104
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-31
- 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
- N24894
- Operator
- Southern Cross Aviation
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR), Newark, NJTo Bangor International Airport (BGR), Bangor, ME
- 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
- 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, fuel quantity float/sensor › Incorrect
- Fuel system, transfer pump › Pressure excessive
- Fuel system, vent › Inadequate
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Portland, ME, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
THE AIRPLANE WAS ON A FERRY FLIGHT WITH AN AUXILIARY FUEL TANK IN THE FUSELAGE FOR INCREASED RANGE. DURING FUEL TRANSFER FROM THE AUXILIARY TANK TO THE MAIN WING TANK, THE FUEL PRESSURE BECAME EXCESSIVE AND THE WING TANK RUPTURED. THE PILOT SAID THE FUEL QUANTITY GAUGE WAS INACCURATE. THE WING TANK VENT SYSTEM WAS NOT ADEQUATE TO HANDLE THE EXCESSIVE FUEL BEING SUPPLIED BY THE AUXILIARY TANK. THE PILOT EXPERIENCED SOME FLIGHT CONTROL DIFFICULTY AFTER THE RUPTURE, BUT HE MANAGED TO LAND WITHOUT INCIDENT.
Probable cause
THE EXCESSIVE FUEL PRESSURE DURING INFLIGHT FUEL TRANSFERRING, WHICH RESULTED IN THE RUPTURE OF THE WING TANK AND SUBSEQUENT DAMAGE TO THE WING. ALSO CAUSAL TO THE ACCIDENT WAS THE INADEQUATE FUEL TANK VENT SYSTEM AND THE INACCURATE FUEL QUANTITY SYSTEM.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record NYC92LA036
- Event ID
- 20001212X18518
- Case number
- NYC92LA036
- 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: a8f50eee83817781306b6dc9d3421bc148bc84e08a61a10e1e246d262f282926; retrieved 2026-09-23T03:31:43.466Z.