FTW85FQG02 · Piper PA-28-140
Piper PA-28-140 · Accident: fire during initial climb
From an unrecorded airport to E02 · Odessa, TX
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW85FQG02
- 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-28-140
- 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
- N7401R
- Operator
- Jack H. Romans · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo E02 · Odessa, TX
- 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, muffler › Disconnected
- Exhaust system, stack › Not engaged
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE ACFT COCKPIT/CABIN FILLED WITH SMOKE AFTER TAKEOFF. THE PLT & PASSG SMELLED AN ODOR OF ELECTRICAL WIRING BURNING AND SAW FIRE AT THE FIREWALL NEAR THE RUDDER PEDALS. THE ACFT WAS TURNED 180 DEGREES AND LANDED ON RWY 35. THE 2 OCCUPANTS IMMEDIATELY EGRESSED. INVESTIGATION SHOWED THAT THE ENG LEFT EXHAUST STACK, PN 63726-O2, WHICH SHOULD BE INSERTED INTO THE MUFFLER ASSEM, PN 66704-00 AND SECURED WITH CLAMP ASSEM, PN 65442-03 WAS DISPLACED AWAY FROM THE END OF THE MUFFLER ALLOWING HOT GASES TO BE DIRECTED ONTO THE FIREWALL IN THE AREA OF THE STARTER SOLENOID AND BRAKE RESERVOIR. THE SECURING CLAMP ASSEM WAS PRESENT ON THE MUFFLER WITH THE NUT INSTALLED AND CLAMP FLUSH WITH THE OUTSIDE DIAMETER OF THE MUFFLER EXTENSION. THE LOCATER PIN WAS EXTENDING THRU THE MUFFLER EXTENSION. THE EXHAUST STACK HAD THE LOCATOR HOLD AND INSPECTION DID NOT SHOW THAT THE PIN WAS WORN OR SHEARED TO ALLOW DISENGAGEMENT. FIRE DAMAGED THE ACFT FROM THE FIREWALL TO THE BAGGAGE/REAR AERA. FLUID FROM THE MELTED BRAKE RESERVOIR APPEARED TO ADD TO THE FIRE.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW85FQG02
- Event ID
- 20001214X37473
- Case number
- FTW85FQG02
- 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 1985-08-24.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 2da31a63062474a803e08bdad8462820433c3401b318c2410f2188adac15c866; retrieved 2026-09-23T16:05:37.581Z.