CHI89FA117 · Piper PA-24-180
Piper PA-24-180 · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical)
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI89FA117
- 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-24-180
- 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
- N30BS
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo 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
- Unknown
- 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 exhaustion; 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
- Fluid, fuel › Exhaustion
- Pilot in command › Airspeed, not maintained
- Pilot in command › Fuel supply, inadequate
- Pilot in command › Planning/decision, improper
- Pilot in command › Stall, inadvertent
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE AIRCRAFT HAD BEEN PARKED FOR 14 MONTHS AND DID NOT HAVE A CURRENT ANNUAL INSPECTION WHEN THE OWNER/PILOT TOOK IT FOR A FLIGHT. NO KNOWN WITNESSES SAW THE AIRCRAFT TAKEOFF. SUBSEQUENTLY, THE AIRCRAFT IMPACTED IN A FIELD JUST NORTH OF THE AIRPORT. IT WAS FOUND WHEN A MOTORIST SAW A DUST CLOUD IN THE FIELD & PROCEEDED TO INVESTIGATE. AN EXAM OF THE CRASHSITE REVEALED THE ACFT HAD IMPACTED JUST NORTHEAST OF WHERE IT HAD COME TO REST. THE AIRCRAFT WAS EXTENSIVELY DAMAGED DURING IMPACT. BOTH PROP BLADES WERE BENT AFT & NEITHER HAD CHORDWISE POLISHING OR SCRATCHES. NO USABLE FUEL WAS FOUND IN THE AIRCRAFT. ALTHOUGH THE FUEL PUMP FILTER WAS WET & THE LINES WERE BROKEN BETWEEN THE GASCOLATOR & CARBURETOR, NO FUEL WAS FOUND IN THE LINES OR ELECTRIC FUEL PUMP. THE ACCIDENT OCCURRED ON A DAY WHEN THE ARPT WAS UNATTENDED & FUEL WAS NOT AVAILABLE. A TOXICOLOGY CHECK SHOWED NO ALCOHOL IN THE PILOT'S BLOOD. ALTHOUGH HIS KIDNEY TISSUE HAD AN ALCOHOL LEVEL OF 0.056%, THE TOXICOLOGY REPORT INDICATED THE ALCOHOL WAS '. . . DUE TO TISSUE DECOMPOSITION OR CONTAMINATION.'
Probable cause
IMPROPER PLANNING/DECISION OF THE PILOT, WHICH RESULTED IN FUEL EXHAUSTION FROM AN INADEQUATE SUPPLY OF FUEL, AND HIS FAILURE TO MAINTAIN FLYING SPEED DURING A FORCED LANDING, WHICH RESULTED IN A STALL AND SUBSEQUENT IMPACT WITH THE GROUND.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI89FA117
- Event ID
- 20001213X28525
- Case number
- CHI89FA117
- 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: a880f8b043d124389f6f6911e8ede6800aa1b7650a0ad7fe800bb11cbe1f74af; retrieved 2026-09-21T03:16:22.415Z.