BFO85LA015 · Piper PA-31-350
Piper PA-31-350 · Accident: partial loss of engine power (non-mechanical) during initial climb
From Lynchburg Regional Airport - Preston Glenn Field (LYH) to Charlottesville Albemarle Airport (CHO)
Event
- NTSB case
- BFO85LA015
- 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-31-350
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-31
- 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
- N3528U
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Lynchburg Regional Airport - Preston Glenn Field (LYH)To Charlottesville Albemarle Airport (CHO), Charlottesville, VA
- 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
- Partial loss of engine power (non-mechanical)
- 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
- Engine assembly › Disabled
- Fbo personnel › Refueling, improper
- Fluid, fuel › Improper
- Pilot in command › Aircraft preflight, inattentive
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Lynchburg, VA, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
AS THE GEAR WAS RETRACTING AFTER TAKEOFF, THE ACFT BEGAN TO LOSE POWER. THE PLT COULD DETECT NO YAW TO EITHER SIDE. WHEN THE ACFT WAS ABOUT 50 FEET OFF THE GROUND, THE TWR INFORMED THE PLT THAT VAPOR OR SMOKE WAS TRAILING FROM THE LEFT ENG. THE PLT ACKNOWLEDGED THAT HE HAD A PROBLEM. THE PLT THEN PLANNED AND EXECUTED A FORCED LANDING INTO TREES AT THE DEPARTURE END OF RWY 21 AT LYNCHBURG MUNICIPAL AIRPORT. EXAMINATION OF THE WRECKAGE BY AN FAA REPRESENTATIVE REVEALED LARGE QUANITIES OF JET FUEL THROUGHOUT THE FUEL SYSTEM OF THE ACFT. REFUELING OF THE ACFT IMMEDIATELY PRIOR TO THE ACCIDENT WAS ACCOMPLISHED BY AN EXPERIENCED LINEMAN WHO HAD COMPLETED THE GENERAL AVIATION MANUFACTURERS ASSOCIATION'S LINEMAN TRAINING VIDEO TAPE PROGRAM. THE ACFT AND FUEL TRUCKS WERE MARKED IN STANDARD FASHION WITH APPROPRIATE PLACARDS.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record BFO85LA015
- Event ID
- 20001214X35641
- Case number
- BFO85LA015
- 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: d14e710960b0a721f46259ec1bccb33c9052fc267e8211822bd7507bf5171816; retrieved 2026-09-22T01:59:27.876Z.