NYC92LA051 · Piper PA-24-260C
Piper PA-24-260C · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) during initial climb
From an unrecorded airport to Waterbury Oxford Airport (OXC)
Event
- NTSB case
- NYC92LA051
- 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-24-260C
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-24
- 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
- N9423P
- Operator
- Stanley Postyn
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo Waterbury Oxford Airport (OXC), Oxford, CT
- 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; Fuel starvation
- 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
- Fluid, fuel › Ice
- Fluid, fuel › Starvation
- Fluid, fuel › Water
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Stratford, CT, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
SHORTLY AFTER TAKEOFF, THE PILOT RADIOED THAT HE HAD A PROBLEM. ATC CLEARED HIM TO LAND ON ANY RUNWAY. THE PILOT SAID, '. . . I DON'T THINK I CAN MAKE THAT (AIRPORT), I SEE THE HIGHWAY BELOW.' THE AIRPLANE LANDED AT AN ANGLE TO THE SOUTHBOUND LANES OF INTERSTATE HIGHWAY I-95 AND HIT A GUARD RAIL AND THE CENTER CEMENT BARRIERS. EXAMINATION OF THE WRECKAGE REVEALED THAT THE FUEL SELECTOR WAS POSITIONED TO THE LEFT MAIN FUEL TANK. PIECES OF ICE WERE REMOVED FROM THE LEFT MAIN FUEL TANK, THE FUEL SELECTOR VALVE, AND THE FUEL STRAINER SEDIMENT BOWL. THE AIRPLANE WAS LAST REFUELED ON 10/27/91, WITH 53.9 GALLONS OF 100 OCTANE FUEL. THERE WAS NO RECORD FOUND TO INDICATE THE AIRPLANE HAD BEEN FLOWN SINCE THE LAST REFUELING ON THAT DATE.
Probable cause
WATER/ICE IN THE FUEL SYSTEM, WHICH RESULTED IN FUEL STARVATION AND A LOSS OF ENGINE POWER. FACTORS RELATED TO THE ACCIDENT WERE: FREEZING TEMPERATURES AND INADEQUATE PRE-FLIGHT PREPARATION BY THE PILOT.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record NYC92LA051
- Event ID
- 20001212X18662
- Case number
- NYC92LA051
- 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: 8402df9dde4558ddd2ac10564f0535f5b520d973239302aeeb186e658fef748a; retrieved 2026-09-21T15:10:46.836Z.