NYC83FA030 · Piper PA-28-180
Piper PA-28-180 · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) during initial climb
From Plymouth Municipal Airport (PYM) to Plymouth Municipal Airport (PYM)
Event
- NTSB case
- NYC83FA030
- 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-28-180
- 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
- N9103J
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Plymouth Municipal Airport (PYM), Plymouth, MATo Plymouth Municipal Airport (PYM), Plymouth, MA
- 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
- 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
- Total loss of engine power (non-mechanical)
- Also codedOther events the NTSB coded in the sequence, such as a wire strike after a loss of power. Flight Findings uses them for its kinds of event. Glossary
- Fuel contamination; Stall/mush; Tree(s)
- 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
- Fluid, fuel › Water
- Pilot in command › Aircraft preflight, inadequate
- Pilot in command › In-flight planning/decision, improper
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Plymouth, MA, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
THE AIRCRAFT HAD BEEN REPOSSESSED. THE PURPOSE OF THE FLIGHT WAS FOR THE PILOT TO DEMONSTRATE IT TO ONE OR BOTH OF THE OTHER OCCUPANTS. PRIOR TO THIS FLIGHT, THE AIRCRAFT HAD NOT BEEN FLOWN SINCE 5/20/82. DURING TAKEOFF, THE ENGINE LOST POWER AT ABOUT 200 FT AGL. THE PILOT MADE A RIGHT TURN BACK TOWARD THE RUNWAY, BUT THE PLANE CRASHED IN A WOODED AREA BESIDE THE DEPARTURE END. IT WAS IN A STEEP RIGHT BANK DURING IMPACT WITH THE TREES. AFTER THE ACCIDENT, WATER WAS FOUND IN THE LEFT WIND TANK, FUEL SUMP AT THE ENGINE FIRE WALL, ELECTRIC FUEL PUMP AND ATTACHED LINES, ENGINE DRIVEN FUEL PUMP AND CARBURETOR. THE FUEL SELECTOR WAS FOUND POSITIONED TO THE LEFT TANK. ALSO, THE ATTACH CABLE FOR THE RIGHT INBOARD SEAT BELT WAS FOUND BROKEN. SAMPLES OF THE SEAT BELT CABLES WERE TESTED ONE OF 3 SAMPLES FAILED AT 1570 LBS (THE OTHER 2 SAMPLES TESTED TO 2126 & 2174 LBS). CORROSION WAS FOUND ON THE WEAKER SAMPLE.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record NYC83FA030
- Event ID
- 20020917X05057
- Case number
- NYC83FA030
- 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: ee153592e47bcba366806036694f22f056ef2389c322da1f795803254fcb5d08; retrieved 2026-09-21T18:03:52.819Z.