CHI02LA019 · Piper PA-32-301T
Piper PA-32-301T · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) during takeoff
From Price County Airport (PBH) to Campbell Airport (C81)
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI02LA019
- 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-32-301T
- 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
- N82813
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Price County Airport (PBH), Phillips, WITo Campbell Airport (C81), Grayslake, IL
- 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
- 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
- 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 › Unsuitable terrain or takeoff/landing/taxi area, encountered
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The airplane sustained substantial damage on impact with terrain during a forced landing following an in-flight loss of engine power during takeoff. The pilot and four passengers were uninjured. The pilot purchased 42 gallons of fuel. He said, "During initial climbout I noted a change in exhaust noise, and the engine began running rough. The engine was running rough, but still developing enough power to execute a shallow, climbing, left turn, providing me the opportunity to use the airport environment behind me for a landing. On a wide left downwind for runway 19, at approximately 250 ft. AGL, the engine ceased developing power. I chose a touchdown point in the field on the runway environment immediately south of runway 06/24. The field was cut grass, but soft, wet, and rutted. During the rollout the nosegear and the left main gear collapsed." The airplane was equipped with an engine monitor. The monitor recorded a fuel flow between 10.2 and 13.5 gallons per hour and used .5 gallons during the run up. During start of the takeoff, the monitor recorded .9 gallons of fuel used. The monitor's last six takeoff entries showed the aircraft used 1.7 gallons of fuel. The engine was test run and no anomalies were found. The mechanic who repaired the aircraft stated, "During repairs to the above referenced aircraft, we discovered that the fuel selector lever would go past the selected fuel tank detent. Upon further investigation, the 'off' stop was not operating properly." The PA-32-301T's POH stated, "ENGINE POWER LOSS DURING TAKEOFF ... If sufficient altitude has been gained to attempt a restart: Maintain safe airspeed Fuel selector...switch to tank containing fuel, Electric fuel pump...check on, Mixture...check RICH, Alternate air...OPEN, ... 3.9 ENGINE POWER LOSS DURING TAKEOFF ... If engine failure was caused by fuel exhaustion, power will not be regained after switching fuel tanks until the empty fuel lines are filled. This may require up to ten seconds."
Probable cause
The fuel starvation encountered on takeoff and unsuitable terrain the pilot encountered during the forced landing. A factor was the fuel selector valve malfunction.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI02LA019
- Event ID
- 20011113X02224
- Case number
- CHI02LA019
- 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: 39395c1cb2991c4f5abd8e179b33a3dd896ac26c5569672f604de8d284d8e7b5; retrieved 2026-09-22T11:26:38.449Z.