CHI01FA233 · Piper PA-32-260
Piper PA-32-260 · Accident: partial loss of engine power (non-mechanical) during initial climb
From Thacker Airport (11LL) to Wittman Regional Airport (OSH)
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI01FA233
- 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
- 2 · 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-32-260
- 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
- N27AP
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Thacker Airport (11LL), Chenoa, ILTo Wittman Regional Airport (OSH), Oshkosh, 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
- Initial climb
- 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; Stall
- 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 › In-flight planning/decision, improper
- Pilot in command › Stall, inadvertent
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The airplane sustained substantial damage on impact with terrain following an in-flight loss of engine power during initial climbout. The pilot and passenger were fatally injured. A witness stated, "Took of[f] to south. Normal acceleration. ... In left turn sounded like engine lost power. (no backfire)" Another witness stated, "Looked north when t[he] plane engine cut out. Plane low, heading south east, turning easterly w[ith] slight climb or level flying." The day prior, the airplane was fueled with 58.3 gallons of 100LL. The local wind was 190 degrees at 07 knots. The propeller was found attached to the engine. Both propeller blades exhibited aft bending. Flight control continuity was established. Control continuity was established to the engine. The fuel selector was found damaged and indicating a position between left and right tanks. Fuel was found in the right tip tank, in the fuel selector valve, in the fuel line to the engine driven fuel pump, in the engine driven fuel pump, and in the carburetor's accelerator pump cylinder. The electric fuel pump was observed pumping a liquid when electric power was applied. The engine driven fuel pump was disassembled and no anomalies were exhibited. The fuel selector valve was disassembled and its internal valve components were found positioned between tanks. The engine was test run up to full power with the original carburetor and magnetoes. No anomalies were noted during the test run. Observations of surrounding farmland revealed suitable landing areas for a forced landing.
Probable cause
The inadvertent stall the pilot encountered during his turn with an in-flight loss of engine power due to fuel starvation on initial climbout and the improper in-flight decision he made to continue the turn. Factors were the fuel starvation and the incorrect fuel tank selector position.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI01FA233
- Event ID
- 20010730X01556
- Case number
- CHI01FA233
- 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, coordinates. 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: 004708c7cbca39b20e1f17f08a2fd8616dd126678f7198b727005d8db1c889ad; retrieved 2026-09-20T20:27:07.407Z.