FTW02LA244 · Piper PA-28-140
Piper PA-28-140 · Accident: loss of engine power en route
From Canton Hackney Airport (7F5) to East Texas Regional Airport (GGG)
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW02LA244
- 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
- N3961K
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Canton Hackney Airport (7F5), Canton, TXTo East Texas Regional Airport (GGG), Longview, TX
- 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
- En route · cruise
- 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
- Substantial
Cause areas
- 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 pilot retarded the throttle and initiated a descent to deviate around a cloud. Once clear of the cloud, the pilot advanced the throttle and initiated a climb back to the cruise altitude; however, power did not develop and gradually decreased. Engine power continued to decrease and the pilot was unable to maintain altitude. The pilot attempted to restart the engine; however, was unsuccessful. He executed a forced landing to a field. The temperature and dew point at the time of the accident were conducive to the formation of serious induction icing at a glide power setting. According to an FAA inspector, who examined the airplane, the left wing fuel tank contained 12 gallons of fuel and the right wing fuel tank was compromised during the impact. The cockpit fuel selector placard was mounted upside-down; therefore, provided an incorrect reading to the pilot. The cockpit fuel selector was found in the OFF position; however, the placard that was installed at the time of the accident would have indicated that the selected fuel tank was the LEFT tank. The pilot did not recall the position of the cockpit fuel selector at the time of the loss of engine power. The reason for the loss of engine power was not determined.
Probable cause
The loss of engine power for an undetermined reason, which resulted in a forced landing.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW02LA244
- Event ID
- 20020906X01538
- Case number
- FTW02LA244
- 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: 2a7e5a5e7bb08ca387d71f74ee8e09e4e340a9e5d0b0f0a0dd68799784548819; retrieved 2026-09-22T10:22:31.251Z.