FTW01LA066 · Piper PA-28-140
Piper PA-28-140 · Accident: partial loss of engine power (non-mechanical) en route
From Greenwood–Leflore Airport (GWO) to Tulsa Riverside Airport (RVS)
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW01LA066
- 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
- Unknown
- 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-28-140
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-28
- 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
- N2457Q
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Greenwood–Leflore Airport (GWO), Greenwood, MSTo Tulsa Riverside Airport (RVS), Tulsa, OK
- 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
- Partial 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 starvation
- 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
- Pilot in command › Fuel tank selector position, delayed
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The cross-country flight departed in dark night instrument meteorological conditions, and experienced "strong headwinds" and carburetor icing. The flying pilot applied carburetor heat, reduced the engine RPM, and readjusted the mixture in an attempt to increase the endurance. When the flight was approximately 35 miles from its destination, the low voltage light illuminated and the ammeter read zero. The flight was diverted to an airport with a precision approach; however, the engine started to lose power. The non-flying pilot switched the fuel selector from the left fuel tank, which the flight crew assumed to be empty, to the right fuel tank, which contained an estimated 10 gallons of fuel; however, the engine power did not change. The pilots requested vectors to the nearest airport; however, when the airplane broke out of the clouds at 800 feet agl, they could not reach the airport. The flying pilot set up for a landing in a field, where the airplane impacted a fence post during the landing roll. Examination of the airplane at the accident site by an FAA inspector revealed that the left fuel tank contained residual fuel only and the right fuel tank was compromised by impact damage. The engine was test run following the accident, and no anomalies were noted with either the engine or the alternator.
Probable cause
the pilot's delay in switching the fuel selector, which resulted in fuel starvation in cruise flight.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW01LA066
- Event ID
- 20010220X00470
- Case number
- FTW01LA066
- 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: 9fd2cecc37235ddd1a5b8abcc77ca2fa1849a290d614213460efa251cf23b8cc; retrieved 2026-09-21T20:00:44.489Z.