MIA02LA175 · Piper PA-28R-200
Piper PA-28R-200 · Accident: loss of engine power during initial climb
From Roy E. Ray Airport (5R7) to Mobile Downtown Airport (KBFM)
Event
- NTSB case
- MIA02LA175
- 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
- Unknown
- 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-200
- 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
- N2963R
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Roy E. Ray Airport (5R7), Bayou La Batre, ALTo Mobile Downtown Airport (KBFM), Mobile, 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 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
- Loss of engine power
- 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
- 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
- Substantial
Cause areas
- Fuel system, fuel control › Contamination
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
After landing following a 2 hour 55 minute flight the fuel tanks were filled; a preflight inspection of the aircraft using a checklist revealed no contaminants when checking the fuel. After an engine run up using a checklist,10-degrees of flaps was selected and he departed. After a positive rate of climb, the gear selector switch was placed in the up position; however, the gear remained down due to the automatic gear extender system installed on the aircraft which lowers the gear automatically when the airspeed is below a certain value. Around 100 feet the engine suddenly quit. The pilot descended to maintain airspeed, and collided with trees. The next thing he remembers is being in the airplane on the ground. According to the FAA inspector who examined the accident site, the airplane impacted a dirt road with the landing gear extended and the left wing of the airplane separated after colliding with a light pole 6-7 feet above ground level. The airplane spun around and came to rest upright. Examination of engine revealed crankshaft, camshaft, and valve train continuity; compression and suction were noted in all cylinders. The magnetos sparked to all plugs of all cylinders, and the engine driven fuel pump, and vacuum pump were operational. The servo fuel injector flowed 45.8 pph at full throttle; the service limits are 82.9 to 94.0 pph. Disassembly revealed white solid contaminates, water droplets, and rust inside of the fuel regulator, fuel diaphragm, mixture control unit, and the fuel strainer and housing. The fuel diaphragm stem was checked, and was 0.008 inch full deflection. The servo injector had the original Lycoming lead seal, and was manufactured, April 28, 1969. A review of the engine maintenance records show that the servo injector was not overhauled since the date of manufacture. Service Bulletin PRS-97 released by Precision Airmotive Corp. on Nov. 11, 1991, establishes overhaul and calibration of the fuel injection system to be done every 10 years; compliance not required by FAA.
Probable cause
The loss of engine power due to internal contamination (rust and water) of the servo fuel injector resulting in it flowing approximately half of the required fuel flow at full throttle. A contributing factor was the unsuitable terrain encountered by the pilot during the forced landing.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record MIA02LA175
- Event ID
- 20021002X05257
- Case number
- MIA02LA175
- 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, coordinates. 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: 709744aba0194e998cd5007b8a39ab3981229e0b3008bc333b7a802a36b051d9; retrieved 2026-09-21T19:36:23.913Z.