MKC88FA005 · Piper PA-32RT-300T PA-32RT-30
Lange Partnership Piper PA-32RT-300T PA-32RT-30 · Accident: fire during initial climb
From Lincoln Airport (LNK) to Charles B. Wheeler Downtown Airport (MKC)
Event
- NTSB case
- MKC88FA005
- 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
- 2 · 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-32RT-300T PA-32RT-30
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-32
- 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
- N39922
- Operator
- Lange Partnership
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Lincoln Airport (LNK)To Charles B. Wheeler Downtown Airport (MKC), Kansas City, MO
- 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
- Initial climb
- 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
- Fire
- 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
- Exhaust system, manifold/pipe › Fire
- Exhaust system, manifold/pipe › Separation
- Ignition system, high tension wiring › Burned
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Lincoln, NE, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
DURING CLIMBOUT, SMOKE BEGAN FILLING THE CABIN AND SHORTLY THEREAFTER THE ENG STOPPED. GROUND WITNESSES OBSERVED SMOKE COMING FROM THE ENG COMPARTMENT JUST BEFORE THE ACFT IMPACTED A LARGE WOODPILE BEHIND A HOUSE LOCATED 1/2 MILE EAST OF THE ARPT. EXAMINATION DISCLOSED THAT THE LEFT INTERMEDIATE EXHAUST PIPE (90 DEGREE ELBOW) HAD SEPARATED FROM THE EXHAUST CROSSOVER TUBE LEADING TO THE TURBOCHARGER AND ALLOWED INTENSE, HOT EXHAUST GASES FLOWING FROM THE ELBOW TO SPEW DIRECTLY INTO THE ENG COMPARTMENT. THE FLANGE AT THE OTHER END OF THE ELBOW WAS CRACKED AND EVIDENCE INDICATED THAT THE GASKET, AS WELL AS THE FLANGES, HAD BEEN MISALLIGNED. A REPAIR HAD BEEN MADE TO THE EXHAUST SYSTEM ABOUT A MONTH BEFORE THE ACCIDENT.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record MKC88FA005
- Event ID
- 20001213X32402
- Case number
- MKC88FA005
- 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: a179624eb71aceae518182504ee1ad2a357cde386d24a0b43d24111c7910ebc1; retrieved 2026-09-21T03:56:55.490Z.