ATL83FA270 · Piper PA-32R-300
Piper PA-32R-300 · Accident: total loss of engine power (mechanical failure) en route
From SVM · SALEM, MI to Knoxville Downtown Island Airport (DKX)
Event
- NTSB case
- ATL83FA270
- 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
- Instrument Meteorological Cond
Piper PA-32R-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
- N6866J
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From SVM · SALEM, MITo Knoxville Downtown Island Airport (DKX), Knoxville, TN
- 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 (mechanical failure)
- 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; Tree(s)
- 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 › Starvation
- Fuel system, fuel control › Failure, total
- Manufacturer › Aircraft/equipment inadequate
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE ACFT CRASHED DURING A FORCED LANDING AFTER AN ENGINE FAILURE. THE ACFT WAS CRUISING AT 6000 FT MSL WHEN THE ENGINE QUIT. THE PILOTS SET UP A GLIDE FOR CYNTHIANA/HARRISON ARPT WHILE TRYING TO RESTART THE ENGINE. WHEN IT BECAME APPARENT THAT THEY COULD NOT REACH THE ARPT THEY HEADED FOR AN OPEN AREA. THE ACFT WENT BETWEEN 2 TREES WHICH TOOK OFF BOTH WINGSAND THE FUSELAGE HIT THE GROUND HARD. THE ACFT THEN SLID TO A STOP. WHEN THE ENGINE WAS EXAMINED THE FUEL SERVO WAS FOUND INOPERATIVE. THIS ASSEMBLY P/N 2539806 WAS THE SUBJECT OF A BENDIX SERVICE BULLETIN # RS-85 ISSUED 6/20/83. ACTIONRECOMMENDED WAS TO REPLACE THE DIAPHRAGM WITH A NEW ONE P/N 2541803. SERVICE BULLETINS ARE NOT MANDATORY. THIS BULLETIN WAS MADE AN AIRWORTHINESS DIRECTIVE IN 8/83.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ATL83FA270
- Event ID
- 20001214X43582
- Case number
- ATL83FA270
- 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: 6af305142a4f995773f306695362c5de720f9c0ce32fa2020014816c2059eb1d; retrieved 2026-09-21T17:52:46.666Z.