NYC90LA162 · Piper PA-23-150
Piper PA-23-150 · Accident: loss of engine power en route
From Delaware Coastal Airport (GED) to 1N9 · Allentown, PA
Event
- NTSB case
- NYC90LA162
- 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-23-150
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-23
- 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
- N3EF
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Delaware Coastal Airport (GED), SUSSEX CO., DETo 1N9 · Allentown, PA
- 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 · climb to 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
- 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
- Wire, transmission
- 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 › Clearance, not possible
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PILOT WAS RETURNING TO HIS HOME AIRPORT FLYING VFR A 1500 FEET MSL. AFTER STARTING A SLOW CLIMB TO 3000 FEET THE PILOT NOTICED THE PROPELER RPM HAD DROPPED ON THE RIGHT ENGINE AND HIS PASSENGER TOLD HIM THAT OIL WAS LEAKING FROM THE ENGINE. THE PILOT SHUT DOWN & FEATHERED THE RIGHT ENGINE. HE COULD NOT MAINTAIN ALTITUDE OR AIRSPEED ON THE LEFT ENGINE, SO HE ELECTED TO MAKE AN OFF AIRPORT LANDING ON A CLOSED HIGHWAY. WHILE ON APPROACH, THE LEFT PROPELLER STRUCK A POWERLINE. THE PILOT COULD NOT GAIN CONTROL OF THE AIRPLANE BEFORE IT IMPACTED THE GROUND. THE ENGINE TEARDOWN SHOWED NO DISCREPANCIES. THE POST IMPACT FIRE CAUSED TOO MUCH DAMAGE TO THE OIL LINES & ENGINES EXTERIOR TO DETERMINE THE ORIGIN OF THE OIL LEAK.
Probable cause
WIRE STRIKE DURING AN OFF AIRPORT FORCED LANDING IN UNSUITABLE TERRAIN. CONTRIBUTING FACTORS WERE A POWER LOSS, CAUSED BY AN ENGINE OIL LEAK.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record NYC90LA162
- Event ID
- 20001212X23802
- Case number
- NYC90LA162
- 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: 8867dd85a7f5f36fb929ba877d49376da3a9f5ec8154b7be90d4f4fffa34a8ca; retrieved 2026-09-21T23:48:42.349Z.