NYC01LA099 · Piper PA-28-161
Piper PA-28-161 · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) on approach
From Tweed New Haven Airport (HVN) to Winchester Regional Airport (OKV)
Event
- NTSB case
- NYC01LA099
- 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 PA-28-161
- 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
- N286FT
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Tweed New Haven Airport (HVN), New Haven, CTTo Winchester Regional Airport (OKV), Winchester, VA
- 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
- Approach · VFR pattern final
- 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 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
- Pilot in command › Fuel management, inadequate
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot stated that he departed with full fuel tanks, and the fuel selector was initially positioned to the left tank. The pilot reported that he switched fuel tanks every 15 minutes. However, about 3 hours en route to his intended destination, the left fuel gauge displayed "E", and the right gauge displayed "1/4." The pilot decided to divert to a closer airport, but he could not activate the pilot-controlled runway lighting. Therefore, he continued to his original destination, and continued to select the left fuel tank. While on approach to the intended airport, the engine lost all power, and the pilot made a forced landing into trees. Examination of the wreckage by a Federal Aviation Administration inspector did not reveal any pre-impact mechanical malfunctions. The right wing had separated from the airplane, and the right fuel tank was compromised. The left fuel tank was still intact, and the inspector found approximately 1 to 2 pints of fuel remaining in the left tank. Additionally, the airport manager at the alternate airport reported that he tested the pilot-controlled lighting, and it functioned properly. The pilot reported a total flight experience of 84 hours, of which, about 55 were in the make and model accident airplane. He obtained his private pilot certificate about 2 months prior to the accident.
Probable cause
The pilot's inadequate fuel management, which resulted in fuel starvation.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record NYC01LA099
- Event ID
- 20010427X00828
- Case number
- NYC01LA099
- 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 2001-04-21.
- API snapshot SHA-256: f1a51c3ff7ad35fe6508c99ede2aa748397f422ef161cc4f823d78710ed2ccec; retrieved 2026-09-22T12:01:04.526Z.