CHI01LA114 · Piper J3C-65
Piper J3C-65 · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) en route
From Griffith-Merrillville Airport (05C) to Milwaukee, WI
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI01LA114
- 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
- Visual Meteorological Cond
Piper J3C-65
- Aircraft type
- Piper J3
- 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
- N6460D
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Griffith-Merrillville Airport (05C), Merrillville, INTo Milwaukee, WI
- 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
- Fluid, fuel › Exhaustion
- Pilot in command › Aircraft preflight, inadequate
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Gary, IN, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
The airplane contacted a rock and directional control was lost during a forced landing following a loss of engine power. The pilot reported the engine quit while he was six miles out over the water from the shoreline of Lake Michigan. The pilot reported he was able to temporarily restore engine power as he positioned the airplane for a forced landing. The right main gear separated from the airplane during the landing roll after it contacted a large rock. The airplane came to rest part way down an embankment. Examination of the airplane after the accident revealed the carburetor had separated from the engine; however, there was no evidence of fuel leakage at the accident site. One and one-half ounces of fuel were drained from the fuel line between the header fuel tank and the fuel selector. The fuel gages indicated the right tank was empty and the left tank contained 1/3 tank of fuel. A visual inspection of both tanks revealed they were empty. The airplane had been modified with an extended range fuel system. The airplane had not been flown since September, 2000. The pilot reported that three days prior to the accident, he noticed fuel leaking out of the carburetor. He reported that he was told by a mechanic and the airplane owner that the float needle was stuck and that he should tap the carburetor with a wrench. He reported he did this, then flew the airplane around the traffic pattern. The airplane then sat until the day of the accident. The pilot reported he did not visually check the fuel level prior to takeoff on the accident flight.
Probable cause
The inadequate preflight performed by the pilot which resulted in an insufficient fuel supply and the subsequent fuel exhaustion. Factors associated with the accident were the inaccurate fuel quantity indicator, the rock which resulted in the overload failure of the right main landing gear, and the embankment which the airplane traveled down.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI01LA114
- Event ID
- 20010409X00722
- Case number
- CHI01LA114
- 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: 633a1022161bce046d64a1091197257829d22b8dccc2bb94a88f14796f4d7a04; retrieved 2026-09-22T12:02:50.682Z.