CHI02FA112 · Piper 601P
Piper 601P · Accident: loss of engine power during takeoff
From Southeast Colorado Regional Airport (LAA) to Liberal Mid-America Regional Airport (LBL)
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI02FA112
- 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
- 1 · 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 601P
- Aircraft type
- Piper 601
- 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
- N101LT
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Southeast Colorado Regional Airport (LAA), Lamar, COTo Liberal Mid-America Regional Airport (LBL), Liberal, KS
- 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 · roll/run
- 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
- Loss of engine power
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Destroyed
Cause areas
- Aircraft control › Not maintained
- Landing gear, normal brake system › Fire
- Pilot in command › Brakes(normal), improper use of
- Pilot in command › Operation with known deficiencies in equipment, intentional
- Reason for occurrence undetermined
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 was destroyed during an attempted forced landing following an in-flight fire in cruise flight. The pilot was reported to be flying the airplane to an airport in order to have maintenance work performed on the right engine due to a boost problem. It was reported that the pilot had another mechanic at another airport look at the airplane. A work order for a transient airplane was found that indicated work performed on the right engine turbocharger system about 1 month before the accident. The work order shows that the wastegate oil filter was found clogged and collapsed and that it was cleaned, straightened and reinstalled. The pilot operated the airplane with a right engine boost problem. The boost problem with the right engine is evidenced by the previous work order, the excessive amount of runway used during takeoff, the reported smoke from the right engine after takeoff, and the airplane not climbing as expected after takeoff. Due to the reduced power from the right engine, the pilot was required to apply left brake in order to maintain directional control during takeoff, as evidenced by the blued left brake disk with metal transfer into the relief holes and slots. As a result of the pilot using left brake during takeoff, a fire erupted in the left wheel well, which spread to the aft fuselage. This is evidenced by the sooting, fire, and heat damage to the wheel well, the carpet above the wheel well, and aft fuselage. The fuselage immediately behind the baggage compartment had extensive fire damage. The damage in this area included blistered paint on the upper surface, and a two foot square section of the left fuselage skin that was burned away. The area that was burned away was in the vicinity of the hydraulic fluid reservoir. The aluminum hydraulic fluid reservoir was not found, only the steel filler neck, mounting screws, and cap were found. No evidence of fire was found within the right main landing gear wheel well or in the engine compartments. A witness reported seeing the airplane flying south and trailing smoke then banking to the left making a complete circle before descending and ultimately impacting the ground.
Probable cause
The pilot's intentional operation of the airplane with a known engine boost problem resulting in the improper use of brakes to maintain directional control during takeoff, the brake system fire, and the loss of control for undetermined reasons during the emergency landing. A factor was the loss of engine power due to a restricted wastegate filter.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI02FA112
- Event ID
- 20020501X00604
- Case number
- CHI02FA112
- 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: 651eb614dec3a8c456b6545d48e2702c6eea02defe2487c3149f8e48b8c04a7b; retrieved 2026-09-20T20:02:36.558Z.