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NYC88LA068 · Piper PA-28

23 Jan 1988 · Mendon, MA, United States

Piper PA-28 · Accident: loss of engine power en route

From Hopedale Industrial Park Airport (1B6) to AIY · BADER FIELD, NJ

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Event

NTSB case
NYC88LA068
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-28

Aircraft type
Piper PA-28
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
N663FL
Operator
Unknown
Onboard fatalities
Unknown
Route
From Hopedale Industrial Park Airport (1B6), Hopedale, MATo AIY · BADER FIELD, NJ
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
Stall
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 › Airspeed, not maintained
  • Pilot in command › Stall, encountered
  • Reason for occurrence undetermined

Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Mendon, MA, the place the record names. Not the accident site.

NTSB narrative

A SHORT FIELD TAKEOFF WAS BEING MADE DUE TO THE NEAR GROSS WEIGHT OF THE ACFT. SHORTLY AFTER TAKEOFF AT AN ALT OF ABOUT 1,100 FT, THE ACFT EXPERIENCED A VIBRATION AND THE ENG BEGAN TO LOSE POWER. ALL ATTEMPTS TO REGAIN POWER WERE UNSUCCESSFUL. AFTER COMPLETING A 180 DEG TURN TOWARD THE AIRPORT, POWER WAS COMPLETELY LOST. INSUFFICIENT ALT REMAINED TO LAND SAFELY ON THE RUNWAY. THE ACFT WAS STALLED INTO TREES AND SUBSEQUENTLY COLLIDED WITH THE TERRAIN. POST ACCIDENT INSPECTION OF THE ENG AND ACFT FAILED TO REVEAL THE CAUSE OF THE POWER LOSS.

Probable cause

OFF AIRPORT LANDING DUE TO ENGINE POWER LOSS FOR UNDETERMINED REASONS.

Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset

Sources

NTSB record NYC88LA068
Event ID
20001213X24976
Case number
NYC88LA068
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: e39ac57eb984fc161876c154269bac21715fcbe8a355c4866cbd0d4d6cbebe1c; retrieved 2026-09-21T16:14:39.391Z.