MKC86LA073 · Piper PA-28-181
Piper PA-28-181 · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) on approach
From Waukesha County Airport (UES) to Bill & Hillary Clinton National Airport/Adams Field (LIT)
Event
- NTSB case
- MKC86LA073
- 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-28-181
- 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
- N30561
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Waukesha County Airport (UES), Waukesha, WITo Bill & Hillary Clinton National Airport/Adams Field (LIT), Little Rock, AR
- 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 · VFR pattern turn to base
- 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
- 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 › Proper glidepath, not attained
- Pilot in command › Refueling, delayed
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PIC FOUND HIMSELF LOW ON FUEL WITH AN INDICATION OF ONLY 5 GALLONS IN EACH TANK. HE PASSED OVER AN ARPT WITH FUELING FACILITIES AVAILABLE BUT DIVERTED TO BATESVILLE, ARKANSAS, WHICH LAY 48 MILES BEYOND HIS PRESENT POSN. THE PIC STATED THAT HE ATTEMPTED A PRECAUTIONARY LANDING EAST OF THE BATEVILLE ARPT, BUT AS THE PIC TURNED TO LAND IN A FIELD, THE ENGINE QUIT. THE ENSUING LANDING DAMAGED THE ACFT. THE PIC'S PREFLIGHT PLANNING CALCULATION WAS FOR 5.5 HOURS OF FUEL, BUT THE FLT TERMINATED AT 4.6 HOURS. INSPECTION OF THE FUEL TANKS CONFIRMED NO FUEL. A CHECK OF THE FUEL SYSTEM GAUGES DID NOT INDICATE ANY SIGNIFICANT ERROR IN THE INDICATION. THE PIC'S PREFLIGHT PLANNING SHOULD HAVE PROVIDED FOR A PLANNED FUEL STOP BEFORE NEEDING TO USE THE RESERVE FUEL SUPPLY.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record MKC86LA073
- Event ID
- 20001213X33149
- Case number
- MKC86LA073
- 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: 5888c994a08802f31c25ad40d7a76efd23463c798a803d3a64b8aee02dcf8703; retrieved 2026-09-23T14:55:51.679Z.