CHI82FA168 · Piper PA-22
Piper PA-22 · Accident: fire/explosion en route
From DeKalb, IL to JOILET, IL
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI82FA168
- 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-22
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-22
- 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
- N3723Z
- Operator
- Steve S. Matter · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From DeKalb, ILTo JOILET, IL
- 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 · descent
- 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
- Fire/explosion
- 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
- Fuel system, line › Deteriorated
- Fuel system, line › Leak
- Fuselage, floor › Fire
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
WHEN THE AIRCRAFT WAS ABOUT 1 1/2 MILES FROM THE DESTINATION, A FIRE STARTED ON THE LEFT SIDE OF THE FLOORBOARD AGAINST THE FIREWALL. THE PILOT TURNED OFF THE ELECTRICAL SYSTEM, AND BEFORE LANDING, SHUT OFF THE FUEL SELECTOR. AFTER LANDING, THE OCCUPANTS EGRESSED AND THE PLANE CONTINUED TO BURN UNTIL FIRE DEPARTMENT PERSONNEL ARRIVED AND APPLIED DRY CHEMICALS. DURING AN INVESTIGATION, A FUEL LINE WAS FOUND WITH AREAS OF THINNING. THIS LINE WAS ROUTED FROM THE FIRE WALL TO THE FUEL SHUTOFF VALVE ON THE LEFT SIDE O THE CABIN. THIS AREA HAD BEEN EXPOSED TO HIGH HEAT DURING THE FIRE. A POSSIBLE SOURCE OF IGNITION WAS A POWER SUPPLY FOR THE RADIO, WHICH WAS ATTACHED TO THE FIRE WALL UNDER THE INSTRUMENT PANEL JUST ABOVE THE FUEL LINE. AN INTERNAL EXAMINATION OF THE POWER SUPPLY UNIT SHOWED AN AREA OF INTENSIVE HEAT AROUND THE RELAY ASSEMBLY. ACCORDING TO AN ENGINEERING REPORT, THE WALL THINNING OF THE FUEL LINE (MADE FROM ALUMINUM ALLOY 3003) WAS A RESULT OF LOSS OF MATERIAL AT THE INNER SURFACE
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI82FA168
- Event ID
- 20020917X03061
- Case number
- CHI82FA168
- 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: fc7116bd6db4f0735c1a0ed432984b6d3d5053f90b12d05799a330920deabbfd; retrieved 2026-09-21T18:15:32.019Z.