IAD01LA094 · Piper PA-28-140
Piper PA-28-140 · Accident: partial loss of engine power (non-mechanical) during takeoff
From Fort Meade Executive Airport (FME) to Fort Meade Executive Airport (FME)
Event
- NTSB case
- IAD01LA094
- 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-28-140
- 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
- N1825T
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Fort Meade Executive Airport (FME), Odenton, MDTo Fort Meade Executive Airport (FME), MD
- 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
- Takeoff
- 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)
- 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
- Fuel system, carburetor › Blocked(total)
- Other maintenance personnel › Maintenance, 100-hour inspection, improper
- Other maintenance personnel › Maintenance, annual inspection, improper
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot was performing a high-speed taxi run when the airplane began to lift off the ground, and he decided to take-off. About 300-400 feet above the ground, the engine lost partial power, and the pilot made a forced landing on airport property. The engine was test-run on the airframe utilizing the airplane's own fuel system, but it would not start. Examination of the fuel system revealed that the carburetor fuel port and screen were blocked with debris. The debris was removed and the screen was placed back on the carburetor. The engine started immediately, and ran continuously at various power settings without interruption. The debris was identified as small pieces of leaves, various pieces of colored material, and an insect cocoon. A 100-hour inspection was performed on the airplane about 37 days before the accident and an overhauled engine was installed. The logbooks also indicated that a new tachometer was installed at a time of 000.1, all fluid carrying hoses and scat hoses were replaced, and the fuel system was flushed. Eighteen days before the accident an annual inspection was performed on the engine and airplane at a tachometer time of 000.1. At the time of the accident, the tachometer read 0001.9. According to Federal Aviation Regulation (FAR) Part 43 Appendix D, section (d)(3): "Each person performing an annual or 100-hour inspection shall inspect (where applicable), components of the engine and nacelle group as follows.....(3) Internal engine-for cylinder compression and for metal particles or foreign matter on screens and sump drain plugs."
Probable cause
Improper maintenance inspections, which resulted in a blocked carburetor.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record IAD01LA094
- Event ID
- 20010821X01737
- Case number
- IAD01LA094
- 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: 83ba5bcf6faba190fcc1af84dac96677cc6e589a8db84dd16db05cabc00b5fed; retrieved 2026-09-22T11:40:48.265Z.