BFO86FA037 · Piper PA-28-140
Piper PA-28-140 · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) during initial climb
From Lee Airport, Annapolis, MD to WOO · Mitchellville, MD
Event
- NTSB case
- BFO86FA037
- 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-28-140
- 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
- N6959W
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Lee Airport, Annapolis, MDTo WOO · Mitchellville, MD
- 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
- 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 contamination; 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 › Water
- Pilot in command › Aircraft preflight, inadequate
- Pilot in command › Stall, inadvertent
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
WITNESSES INDICATED THAT THE ENGINE SOUNDED NORMAL DURING TAKEOFF RUN BUT STARTED TO LOSE POWER SHORTLY AFTER LIFTOFF. THE AIRCRAFT DEPARTED ON RUNWAY 30 AT LEE AIRPORT, ANNAPOLIS, MD. THE RUNWAY IS 2400 FEET LONG AND BEARDS CREEK IS LOCATED ABOUT 200 FEET OFF ITS DEPARTURE END. THE AIRCRAFT WAS OBSERVED TO MAKE A STEEP 180 DEGREE RIGHT TURN OVER THE DEPARTURE END OF THE RUNWAY WITH THE RIGHT WING CONTACTING THE GROUND FOLLOWED BY THE NOSE. ALTHOUGH EXAMINATION OF THE ENGINE DID NOT DISCLOSE ANY MALFUNCTIONS, WATER WAS FOUND IN THE FUEL TANKS. INVESTIGATION REVEALED THAT THE PILOT WAS KNOWN TO FREQUENTLY USE AUTO FUEL IN HIS AIRCRAFT AND THAT THE AIRCRAFT HAD BEEN APPROVED TO USE UNLEADED AUTOMOTIVE FUEL IN ACCORDANCE WITH STC SA802GL. THE PLTS PLT LOG BOOKS WERE NOT RECOVERED FOR FLT TIME.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record BFO86FA037
- Event ID
- 20001213X33784
- Case number
- BFO86FA037
- Dataset
- historical-pre2008
- Source SHA-256
- 89e2df6d848e7ab3b42e7d7c7a03ff403303057a26ca04c95b3ea67201c3ce74
Source notes (5)
- 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: 92192f98b0c1a529b4b2a18ce68cb9bc79c9dfb2ebfaf009bfd6055994ee42f9; retrieved 2026-09-21T04:31:28.793Z.
- Corrected after a review of the NTSB narrative, which states these values explicitly: departure. The narrative states "THE AIRCRAFT DEPARTED ON RUNWAY 30 AT LEE AIRPORT, ANNAPOLIS, MD" before the right wing and nose struck the ground; the departure was not recorded.