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Heartland Enterprises Piper PA-32R-300 accident

16 Dec 1982 · DEWITT, NE, United States

Piper PA-32R-300 · Accident: airframe, component or system failure en route

From Dodge City, KS to Omaha, NE

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Event

NTSB case
MKC83FA038
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
Charter & commuter
WeatherVisual meteorological conditions (VMC): good enough to fly by looking outside. Instrument conditions (IMC): cloud or low visibility, flying by instruments. Glossary
Instrument Meteorological Cond

Piper PA-32R-300

Aircraft type
Piper PA-32
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
N6855F
Onboard fatalities
Unknown
Route
From Dodge City, KSTo Omaha, NE
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
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
Airframe, component or system 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

  • Electrical system › Failure, total
  • Electrical system, alternator › Contamination
  • Electrical system, alternator › Shorted
  • Electrical system, alternator › Worn
  • Landing gear, nose gear › Unlocked
  • Pilot in command › Gear down and locked, not attained
  • Pilot in command › In-flight planning/decision, improper

Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.

NTSB narrative

AS THE FLT APPROACHED DESTINATION THE ALTERNATOR BEGAN TO MALFUNCTION. PLT CONTINUED TO DESTINATION WHICH WAS IMC, AND AS THE GEAR WAS LOWERED DURING AN INSTRUMENT APPROACH THE NOSE GEAR INDICATED UNSAFE. THE APPROACH WAS DISCONTINUED AND THE PLT CLIMBED BACK TO VMC-ON-TOP. AS THE PLT WAS ATTEMPTING TO GET A SAFE INDICATION ON THE NOSE GEAR, COMPLETE ELECTRICAL FAILURE OCCURRED. HAVING NO COMMUNICATION OR NAVIGATIONAL CAPABILITY, THE PLT RETRACED HIS ROUTE BACK TO KNOWN VMC ABOUT 60 MI SW OF OMAHA. AN OFF-AIRPORT PRECAUTIONARY LANDING WAS MADE DUE TO LOW FUEL, AND THE LANDING GEAR COLLAPSED. THE ALTERNATOR FAILED DUE TO A SHORT FROM FIELD TO GROUND. THE BRUSHES AND PULLEY END BEARING WERE WORN, AND THE ALTERNATOR WAS OIL SOAKED.

Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset

Sources

NTSB record MKC83FA038
Event ID
20020917X04979
Case number
MKC83FA038
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: local date, investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
  • The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 1982-12-17.
  • API snapshot SHA-256: c85626ab498efe350901740c178fed2619f5640c3924b12b0a4461f7a7774c68; retrieved 2026-09-18T21:04:02.671Z.