ATL82DA126 · Piper PA-28R-180
Piper PA-28R-180 · Accident: partial loss of engine power (mechanical failure) en route
From Montgomery County Airpark (GAI) to BPI · Blacksburg, VA
Event
- NTSB case
- ATL82DA126
- 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
- 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
- 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-180
- 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
- N4903J
- Operator
- Ralph Joseph Hubert
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Montgomery County Airpark (GAI), Gaithersburg, MDTo BPI · Blacksburg, 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
- 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
- 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
- Substantial
Cause areas
- Exhaust system › Leak
- Exhaust system, stack › Cracked
- Exhaust system, stack › Failure, total
- Pilot in command › Descent, misjudged
- Pilot in command › Distance, misjudged
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Front Royal, VA, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
DURING FLIGHT THE AIRCRAFT ENGINE DEVELOPED A NOISE WHICH THE PILOT DESCRIBED AS A HISSING. THE PILOT DECLARED AN EMERGENCY, WAS VECTORED TO THE NEAREST AIRPORT, AND PROCEEDED TO SHUT OFF THE ENGINE AT 5000 FEET WHEN OVER THE AIRPORT. DURING THE FORCED LANDING THE AIRPLANE WAS FLOWN BENEATH ELECTRICAL TRANSMISSION WIRES LOCATED NEAR THE RUNWAY THRESHOLD AND IMPACTED APPROXIMATELY 200 YARDS SHORT OF THE RUNWAY. APPROXIMATELY 1/2 INCH OF THE NUMBER 1 EXHAUST RISER WAS FOUND ATTACHED TO THE CYLINDER WITH THE REMAINDER LYING IN THE ENGINE COWL LOWER SECTION. EXAMINATION REVEALED SOOT DEPOSITS ON THE ENGINE COWL ADJACENT TO THE NUMBER 1 ENGINE EXHAUST RISER. A LIGHT BROWN DISCOLORATION WAS OBSERVED ON THE NUMBER ONE CYLINDER LOWER SPARK PLUG AND THE FRACTURE SURFACES OF THE SEPARATED NUMBER 1 EXHAUST RISER. THE PIPER AIRCRAFT CORPORATION INDICATED THAT MISALIGNMENT OF THE CYLINDER HEAD COULD RESULT IN A CRACKED STACK ASSEMBLY IMMEDIATELY BELOW THE STACK ASSEMBLY FLANGE.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ATL82DA126
- Event ID
- 20020917X02723
- Case number
- ATL82DA126
- 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: c4b03c9ddcf8e2afda0b5fa848b5458807fae51f0b34777089db2c321b466e20; retrieved 2026-09-21T18:16:03.234Z.