IAD00FA038 · Piper PA-12
Piper PA-12 · Accident: loss of engine power while maneuvering
From 32M to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- IAD00FA038
- 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
- 1 · 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-12
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-12
- 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
- N3813M
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From 32MTo 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
- Maneuvering
- 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
- Loss of engine power
- 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
- Stall
- 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
- Engine assembly › Undetermined
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Norfolk, MA, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
The pilot was making a second attempt to pick up a banner, and approached the two banner poles and catch rope at a low altitude. Prior to flying between the poles, the engine sounds were heard to increase. When the airplane flew over the catch rope, another increase in engine sounds was heard, and the airplane flew upwards. After the last increase in engine sounds, the engine sounds decreased, followed by two surges of the engine. The airplane descended to the ground in an approximate 45 degree nose down attitude and struck the ground. Prior to contacting the ground, one last surge of the engine was heard. The fuel tanks contained fuel which was absent of debris, and no obstructions were found in the fuel system. Examination of the wreckage revealed the altimeter, tachometer, and vertical speed indicators were not connected to their respective hose and cables. The knurled fitting that attached the tachometer cable to the tachometer was found unscrewed, and the threads were undamaged. Examination of the engine revealed there were no mechanical deficiencies. The carburetor heat handle was found in the off position, and an icing probability chart indicated the conditions were conducive for serious icing in cruise flight.
Probable cause
The loss of power for undetermined reasons, which resulted in an inadvertent stall during at banner pick-up.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record IAD00FA038
- Event ID
- 20001212X20829
- Case number
- IAD00FA038
- 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: 2eb9e07d68170654cfeea1268f3a9d6f52d010dce1b2996103624212bb0996e0; retrieved 2026-09-20T21:19:13.598Z.