Pee Dee Air Express Piper PA-31T3 accident
Piper PA-31T3 · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) on approach
From Florence Regional Airport (FLO) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- ATL84MA296
- 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
- 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-31T3
- 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
- N9193Y
- Operator
- Pee Dee Air Express
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Florence Regional Airport (FLO), Florence, SCTo 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 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 final 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 exhaustion
- 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
- Fluid, fuel › Exhaustion
- Pilot in command › In-flight planning/decision, improper
- Pilot in command › Remedial action, delayed
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Atlanta, GA, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
THE NORMAL FUEL LOAD FOR THE FLT WAS 1500 LBS, BUT WITH A FORECAST TAIL WIND & AN ESTIMATED FLT TIME FOR ONLY 1+10, THE CREW ACCEPTED THE LOWER INDCTD (950 LB) FUEL LOAD. THE FLT WAS UNEVENTFUL UNTIL AN INDCTN OF 250 LBS PER SIDE, THEN THE FUEL 'SEEMED TO DISSIPATE FASTER.' WITH AN INDCTN OF 150 LBS ON DWNWND, THE COPLT RCMDD DECLARING AN EMERGENCY. THE CAPT'S RESPONSE WAS TO ASK ATC FOR THE ANTICIPATED LENGTH OF THE DWNWND LEG. HE WAS TOLD 20 MI. PRIORITY HNDLG WAS REQUESTED, BUT WAS ONLY AVAILABLE FOR A DECLARED EMERGENCY. THE APCH WAS CONTD WITH NORMAL HNDLG FOR APRX 10 MIN. AT 1608:39, THE CREW DECLARED AN EMERGENCY, THEN RPRTD THE ACFT WAS OUT OF FUEL. IT CRASH LANDED ON ROUGH TERRAIN, SHORT OF RWY 8. AN EXAM REVEALED FUEL SENSORS HAD BEEN IMPROPERLY INSTALLED (INTERCHANGED BTN THE INBRD & OUTBRD TANKS). THUS THE GAGES INDCTD ABOUT 180 LBS MORE THAN THE APRX 763 LBS THAT WAS ACTUALLY ABOARD AT TKOF. A SPCL 500 HR INSPN OF THE ENTIRE FUEL SYS WAS MADE ON 7/8/84 USING THE 'WET' METHOD, BUT ONLY THE CAPACITANCE METHOD CHECKS EACH INDIVIDUAL SENSOR
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ATL84MA296
- Event ID
- 20001214X40985
- Case number
- ATL84MA296
- 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: c5082ada7cac5000ae8e3454864aa4756dd0139c74670e78b905a79f1c761d99; retrieved 2026-09-18T20:36:45.438Z.