MKC83LA176 · Piper PA-24-235
Piper PA-24-235 · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) en route
From Wittman Regional Airport (OSH) to Western Neb. Rgnl/William B. Heilig Airport (BFF)
Event
- NTSB case
- MKC83LA176
- 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-24-235
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-24
- 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
- N777EE
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Wittman Regional Airport (OSH), Oshkosh, WITo Western Neb. Rgnl/William B. Heilig Airport (BFF), Scottsbluff, NE
- 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
- 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
- Pilot in command › Fuel consumption calculations, inaccurate
- Pilot in command › Fuel supply, inadequate
- Pilot in command › In-flight planning/decision, improper
- Pilot in command › Refueling, not used
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PILOT STATED THAT HE DEPARTED OSHROSH FOR SCOTTSBLUFF WITH AN ESTIMATED 80 GALLONS OF FUEL ON BOARD THE AIR CRAFT HIS ETE WAS 4 HOURS 30 MINUTES AND FUEL CONSUMPTION AT 15 GPH. APRX 37 NM SHORT OF SCOTTS BLUFF HE NOTICED THE RIGHT FUEL GAUGE INDICATING BELOW THE QUANTITY HE CALCULATED SHOULD HAVE BEEN ABOARD. THIS WAS THE ONLY TANK THAT NOW CONTAINED FUEL. HE REDUCED ENGINE POWER TO 55 PERCENT OF RATED. OVERFLEW ALLIANCE, WHERE FUEL WAS AVAILABLE, AND CONTINUED TO SCOTTSBLUFF. AS THE AIRCRAFT BEGAN ITS DESCENT, THE ENGINE FAILED. THE PILOT TURNED TOWARD ALLIANCE WHILE TRYING TO RESTART THE ENGINE. THE AIRCRAFT LANDED ON A ROLLING SAND HILL APRX 7 MILES SOUTHWEST OF ALLIANCE.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record MKC83LA176
- Event ID
- 20001214X44276
- Case number
- MKC83LA176
- 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 1983-08-05.
- API snapshot SHA-256: a201c04cb4e689d45d77035cf0f3eabaa464459415dfb1387b05484fa6833c23; retrieved 2026-09-23T21:37:11.710Z.