Huntsville Aviation Piper PA-31-350 incident
Piper PA-31-350 · Incident: partial loss of engine power (mechanical failure) during initial climb
From 93J · Enterprise, AL to 93J · Enterprise, AL
Event
- NTSB case
- ATL82IA121
- 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
- Incident
- 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
- 0
- 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
- Charter & commuter
- 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-31-350
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-31
- 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
- N53RT
- Operator
- Huntsville Aviation
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From 93J · Enterprise, ALTo 93J · Enterprise, AL
- 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 135: Air Taxi & Commuter
- 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
- Initial climb
- 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 (mechanical failure)
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Minor
Cause areas
- Company maintenance personnel › Maintenance, replacement, improper
- Exhaust system, stack › Disconnected
- Exhaust system, stack › Incorrect
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
SHORTLY AFTER LIFTOFF, THE PILOT FELT THE AIRCRAFT YAW LEFT AND NOTICED THAT THE LEFT ENGINE MANIFOLD PRESSURE HAD DROPPED FROM 42" HG TO 29" HG. HE ANALYSED A TURBOCHARGER FAILURE AND ELECTED TO KEEP THE ENGINE RUNNING IN THE NORMALLYASPIRATED MODE. AT APPROXIMATELY 400' THE PILOT SAW SMOKE AND FIRE COMING FROM THE RIGHT SIDE OF THE ENGINE. HE SECURED AND FEATHERED THE ENGINE AND MADE A SINGLE ENGINE LANDING. SUBSEQUENT EXAMINATION REVEALED THE RIGHT SIDE COMMON EXHAUSTPIPE FROM THE #1,3 AND 5 CYLINDERS TO THE TURBO HAD SEPARATED. THIS SEPARATION ALLOWED HOT EXHAUST GASES TO IMPINGE ON THE ENGINE COMPARTMENT AND BURN THROUGH THE COWL AND SEVERAL WIRES. IT WAS DETERMINED THAT THE DETACHED PART HAD BEEN REPLACED 1.5 HOURS PRIOR TO THE INCIDENT. INVESTIGATION REVEALED THAT A WRONG REPLACEMENT PART WAS USED WHICH WAS SHORTER THAN THE REQUIRED PART. INSTALLATION WAS POSSIBLE DUE TO OVERLAPPING EXHAUST TUBE SLIP JOINTS. POOR ORGANIZATIONAND NUMBERING OF PARTS CATALOGS WAS CITED BY THE MAINTENENCE FACILITY AS CONTRIBUTING TO THE INSTALLATION ERROR.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ATL82IA121
- Event ID
- 20020917X01775
- Case number
- ATL82IA121
- 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: a93c6b20bc1d1d4a565267a016389363c3bb2874dbde848c79d640d994d0ad5e; retrieved 2026-09-18T21:10:25.139Z.