ATL86FKG01 · Piper PA-32-300
Piper PA-32-300 · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) en route
From Tuscaloosa, AL to 54A · Perry, GA
Event
- NTSB case
- ATL86FKG01
- 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-32-300
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-32
- 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
- N8831F
- Operator
- Geoffrey Green
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Tuscaloosa, ALTo 54A · Perry, GA
- 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
- En route · cruise
- 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
- Tree(s); Wire, transmission
- 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 consumption calculations, inaccurate
- Pilot in command › In-flight planning/decision, poor
- Pilot in command › Procedures/directives, not followed
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE ACFT LANDED SHORT OF THE RWY DURING A FORCED LANDING FOLLOWING LOSS OF PWR DURING A X-COUNTRY FLT OF 2 HRS. 3 WITNESSES SAW THE ACFT BRING REFUELED BUT THE ONLY ONE WHO MENTIONED THE AMOUNT OF FUEL ADDED WAS THE REFUELER WHO SAID HE'TOPPED OFF' ALL 4 TANKS. THE FUEL RECEIPT TOTALED 57 GALS BUT IT WAS FOR TWO ACFT. ONLY 30 GALS WAS PUT IN THE ACC ACFT. THE PLT OF THE ACC FLT SAID THE FUEL GAUGES WENT TO ZERO AS HE WAS BEING VECTORED AROUND HEAVY TURBULENCE. THE ENG WAS RESTARTED AFTER A CHANGE OF FUEL TANKS BUT FAILED AGAIN AND WOULD NOT RESTART. DURING THE LANDING THE ACFT CLIPPED TREES & ELEC WIRES BEFORE CRASHING UPSIDE DOWN. INVESTIGATION AFTER THE ACC REVEALED NO FUEL ABOARD THE ACFT AND NO EVIDENCE OF SPILLAGE. NO FUEL LEAKS IN THE FUEL SYS WAS NOTED. THE PLT THINKS THE FUEL VENTED OR SYPHONED OUT OF THE TANKS.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ATL86FKG01
- Event ID
- 20001214X37948
- Case number
- ATL86FKG01
- 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 1985-10-05.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 9981cdd46c2f32cbfeee7109692bd133640c33ba39b64cfcebaf6a3d2645d15b; retrieved 2026-09-21T17:08:24.714Z.