Ladco Piper PA-31-350 accident
Piper PA-31-350 · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) on approach
From Patrick Leahy Burlington International Airport (BTV) to Mount Washington Regional Airport (HIE)
Event
- NTSB case
- NYC85FA060
- 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
- 4 · 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
- Charter & commuter
- 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
- N27522
- Operator
- Ladco
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Patrick Leahy Burlington International Airport (BTV), Burlington, VTTo Mount Washington Regional Airport (HIE), Whitefield, NH
- 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 135: Air Taxi & Commuter
- 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 missed 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
- Fuel starvation
- 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
- Pilot in command › Fuel tank selector position, improper
- Pilot in command › IFR procedure, improper
- Pilot in command › In-flight planning/decision, improper
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Whitefield, NH, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
THE ACFT CRASHED AFTER EXECUTING A MISSED APPROACH AT WHITEFIELD DURING IMC WX. THE ACFT WAS SEEN AT 300-400 FT AGL DURING SOME PART OF THE MANEUVERING NEAR THE ARPT. THE ACFT SEEMED TO BE HEADING FOR THE ARPT WHEN LAST SEEN BY GROUND OBSERVERS. THE ONLY INDICATION OF TROUBLE WAS THE LOW ALT. OF FLT. THE ACFT CRASHED AT THE 2800 FT LEVEL OF TWIN MT ON A HDG OF 120 DEG AT 2035 HRS. IT WAS LAST SEEN ABOUT 2015 HOURS. NO FUEL WAS FOUND IN THE ENG FUEL DIVIDERS OR FUEL LINES. THE INBOARD TANKS WERE MORE THAN HALF FULL OF FUEL. NORMAL OPERATION CALLS FOR TAKEOFF, CLIMB & DESCENT ON THE INBOARD TANKS. THE OUTBOARD TANKS ARE USED FOR NON-MANEUVERING FLT DURING CRUISE.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record NYC85FA060
- Event ID
- 20001214X35773
- Case number
- NYC85FA060
- 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: local date, investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 1985-02-02.
- API snapshot SHA-256: d74b5811ae87e55d555f3aca778a24fa4b12215e1a33ff598afd752ac132ee78; retrieved 2026-09-18T14:26:47.909Z.