DEN84FA148 · Piper PA-23-150
Piper PA-23-150 · Accident: partial loss of engine power (non-mechanical) during initial climb
From Centennial Airport (APA) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- DEN84FA148
- 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-23-150
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-23
- 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
- N1425P
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Centennial Airport (APA), Englewood, COTo not recorded
- 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
- Reason for occurrence undetermined
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
ACCORDING TO THE PILOT THE ACFT HAD NOT BEEN FLOWN FOR TWO MONTHS AND HE INTENDED TO PRACTICE TOUCH AND GO LANDINGS. MAINTENANCE PERSONNEL WERE REQUESTED TO ADD 10 GALS OF FUEL TO THE RIGHT MAIN TANK JUST PRIOR TO DEPARTURE. THEY REPORTED THAT UPON ARRIVAL THE PILOT DID NOT DRAIN ANY FUEL FROM THE ACFT OR PERFORM ANY OTHER FORM OF PRE-FLIGHT INSPECTION. UPON RAISING THE LANDING GEAR AFTER TAKEOFF, THE PILOT NOTICED AN UNSAFE NOSE GEAR LIGHT. THE NOSE GEAR WAS PUMPED UP AND THE POWER REDUCED TO CLIMB WHEN THE ENGINE BEGAN TO SURGE. AT 1200 TO 1400 FT AGL THE PILOT TURNED CROSSWIND BUT WAS UNABLE TO MAINTAIN ALTITUDE. THE PILOT REPORTED THAT THE LEFT ENGINE WAS DEVELOPING ABOUT 1,000 RPM AT THIS TIME. DESCENDING BELOW 500 FT AGL THE PILOT FLEW TOWARD A FIELD, EXTENDED THE LANDING GEAR AND LANDED WITH THE GEAR IN TRANSIT. THE PILOT STATED THAT HE DID NOT HAVE TIME TO FEATHER THE LEFT PROPELLER. ENGINE DISASSEMBLY REVEALED NO SIGNIFICANT DISCREPANCIES. DENSITY ALTITUDE WAS 7,974 FT MSL.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record DEN84FA148
- Event ID
- 20001214X39541
- Case number
- DEN84FA148
- 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: dd3ea32da3f0070cd5177d10be11f9cd981756a575b85e3d3049e74f7f1be58e; retrieved 2026-09-21T17:37:03.917Z.