BFO89FA063 · Piper PA-24-250
Piper PA-24-250 · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) en route
From Bishop International Airport (FNT) to SN4 · Lincolnton, NC
Event
- NTSB case
- BFO89FA063
- 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-24-250
- 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
- N7162P
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Bishop International Airport (FNT), Flint, MITo SN4 · Lincolnton, NC
- 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 · 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
- 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 starvation; 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 › Starvation
- Pilot in command › Fuel tank selector position, improper
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of True, WV, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
THE VFR RATED PLT REQUESTED AN IFR CLEARANCE TO GET ON TOP OF WX THEN CONTINUED THE FLT VFR. EN ROUTE, TWO DIFFERENT FACILITIES HEARD THE PLT MAKE TRANSMISSIONS. ONE FACILITY REPORTED THE PLT TRANSMITTED HE WAS INBOUND FOR A LANDING TO REFUEL. WITNESSES REPORTED THAT THE ACFT WAS FLYING AT A VERY LOW ALT AND THE ENGINE WAS CUTTING ON AND OFF. THEY REPORTED THAT THE ENGINE CAME ON AGAIN AND THE ACFT ENTERED A STEEP CLIMB TO CLEAR A MOUNTAIN TOP. THE ACFT IMPACTED THE GROUND IN A STEEP NOSE DOWN ATTITUDE AFTER CLEARING THE TOP OF THE MOUNTAIN. THE IMPACT HEADING WAS REVERSE THE DIRECTION OF FLT. RECORDS INDICATE THE ACFT WAS TOPPED OFF WITH FUEL PRIOR TO DEPARTURE. THE ACFT HAS 2 30-GALLON MAIN TANKS AND 2 15-GALLON AUX TANKS. THE FLT WAS APRX 2 HOURS LONG PRIOR TO THE ACCIDENT AND THE ACFT BURN APRX 14 GPH AT 75 PERCENT CRUISE POWER.
Probable cause
THE PILOTS FAILURE TO PROPERLY MONITOR THE FUEL SUPPLY WHICH RESULTED IN FUEL STARVATION. THE AIRCRAFT STALLED AS THE PILOT PERFORMED AN EVASIVE MANEUVER TO AVOID THE MOUNTAIN TOP.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record BFO89FA063
- Event ID
- 20001213X28735
- Case number
- BFO89FA063
- 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: d3d162d31a963f4200a9c03a4502b31e5adb103544bb68b10b139953e2db779f; retrieved 2026-09-21T03:13:12.981Z.