ATL87LA061 · Piper PA-28-181
4353 Associates Piper PA-28-181 · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) on approach
From Bowling Green Warren County Regional Airport (BWG) to Southwest Georgia Regional Airport (ABY)
Event
- NTSB case
- ATL87LA061
- 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
- Instrument Meteorological Cond
Piper PA-28-181
- 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
- N4353P
- Operator
- 4353 Associates
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Bowling Green Warren County Regional Airport (BWG), Bowling Green, KYTo Southwest Georgia Regional Airport (ABY), Albany, GA
- 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
- Approach · IFR final approach
- 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
- Tree(s)
- 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
- Pilot in command › Complacency
- Pilot in command › Fuel consumption calculations, inadequate
- Pilot in command › In-flight briefing service, not used
- Pilot in command › In-flight planning/decision, poor
- Pilot in command › Judgment, inadequate
- Pilot in command › Lack of total instrument time
- Pilot in command › Overconfidence in personal ability
- Pilot in command › Weather evaluation, poor
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
PLT DEPTD BOWLING GREEN WITH A LISTED 5.0 HRS FUEL ON BD. AFTER 3 HR 35 MIN HE ARRIVED OVER DEST AFTER EXHAUSTING FUEL IN THE RT TANK ABT 30 MIN PRIOR. HE STATED THAT THE OTHER TANK WAS ABT 1/2 FULL AT THE TIME. 15 MIN AFTER RT TANK EXHAUSTION THE PLT REQ HIS FIRST WX UPDATE AT DEST. IT WAS AT MIN. AFTER ARP OVER DEST THE EFC TIME WAS ABOUT 25 MIN. LATER. AT THE EFC THE PLT WAS CLRD TO APCH CONT AND TOLD TO EFC 1 HR LATER. THE PLT IND THAT HE COULD NOT HOLD THAT LONG. HE REQ THAT APCH 'LEAP FROG' HIM PAST THE OTHER TRAFFIC APCH DENIED AND PLT REQ DIVERSION TO ANOTHER APT. HE WAS CLRD TO VALDOSTA BUT WAS TOLD THAT APCH GAVE HIM TWO OTHER CHOICES, STAY IN PAT. OR DEC EMER AND WOULD BE WORKED IN PLT REQ PRIORITY INST OF EMER AND WAS DENIED. PLT WAS CLRD FOR ILS APCH. AT 1821 THE PLT RADIOED MY ENG JUST QUIT. HE THEN RADIOED TWR THAT HE HAD HIT SOME WIRES AND WAS DOWN OFF THE ARPT BUT WAS OK. TOT FLT TIME ABT 4 HRS. 40 MIN.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ATL87LA061
- Event ID
- 20001213X30035
- Case number
- ATL87LA061
- 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: 41e38a52f668f59c68cab4b0c6b6d31e035e883a48d296906edc649337357fb8; retrieved 2026-09-23T13:37:30.601Z.