NYC02LA061 · Piper PA-28R-200
Piper PA-28R-200 · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) on approach
From Washington Manassas Harry P. Davis Field (HEF) to Shannon Airport (EZF)
Event
- NTSB case
- NYC02LA061
- 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-28R-200
- 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
- N9302N
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Washington Manassas Harry P. Davis Field (HEF), Manassas, VATo Shannon Airport (EZF), Fredericksburg, 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
- 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
- Dual student › Fuel tank selector position, not verified
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
During a night instructional flight, while approaching the airport, the private pilot performed a pre-landing "GUMPS" checklist. As part of the checklist, the private pilot moved the selector from "LEFT," clockwise toward "RIGHT." However, he did not visually verify that the selector was positioned to "RIGHT." The private pilot performed the checklist item about 1,500 feet msl, and 3 miles from the airport. The engine subsequently lost all power, and neither the private pilot nor CFI were able to perform a successful restart. The private pilot then performed a forced landing into trees. The private pilot did not move the fuel selector after the accident, and the selector was found in the "OFF" position. A photograph of the selector revealed that "LEFT" was at an approximate "10:30" position, "RIGHT" was at an approximate "1:30" position, and "OFF" was at an approximate "4:30" position. Additionally, the selector was located on the left side of the cockpit, and the private pilot was seated in the left seat.
Probable cause
The private pilot's failure to verify the fuel tank selector position, which resulted in fuel starvation and a subsequent forced landing.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record NYC02LA061
- Event ID
- 20020222X00247
- Case number
- NYC02LA061
- 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 2002-02-17.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 29b2bff4950c46921c61f41307bfdaeee9610ca445286b3295e001e5e60c0d49; retrieved 2026-09-22T11:07:21.687Z.