FTW03FA051 · Piper PA-34-220T
Piper PA-34-220T · Accident: loss of engine power en route
From Addison Airport (ADS) to M58 · Monett, MO
Narrative check · The NTSB narrative appears to contradict this record's departure or destination. Values are shown as recorded, not corrected; compare with the narrative.
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW03FA051
- 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
- 5 · 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-34-220T
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-34
- 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
- N699WG
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route Possible conflict
- From Addison Airport (ADS), Addison, TXTo M58 · Monett, MO
- 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
- Loss of engine power
- 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
- Pilot in command › Airspeed(vmc), not maintained
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The private pilot reported 10 miles out, and again 5 miles from the airport that he would be landing. There was no indication that the pilot was experiencing any problems, and winds were light and variable at the time of the accident. Witnesses at the airport reported observing the airplane at an altitude of 5 to 10 feet above the runway at midfield and fast on his approach. Witnesses were certain the left propeller was not turning, as well as reporting hearing power being added to the right engine as the pilot initiated a go-around. Witnesses also reported that the airplane went into a shallow nose up pitch attitude and also observed the landing gear retract. At approximately 200 feet agl it was observed that the airplane started a left turn toward rising terrain, then pitched up to approximately 15 degrees and enter a 30-degree bank to the left before doing a complete roll and impacting terrain in an open pasture. The reason for the left engine being shut down was not determined. Examination of the wreckage revealed that the left propeller was feathered, both main landing gear were extended, and the flaps were retracted. The reason for the left engine being shut down was not determined. While it was calculated that the airplane was within its center of gravity limits for the flight, it was determined that upon arrival at the destination airport the aircraft was 160.4 pounds over its maximum gross certified weight. According to the pilot Operating Handbook, in the case of a one engine inoperative go-around the pilot is warned that it may be impossible to control the airplane when a sudden application of power is made. The pilot is further warned that a one engine go-around is not possible from the approach configuration, unless sufficient altitude is available to raise the flaps and gear in a descent. Additionally, the pilot is cautioned that a one engine go-around should be avoided if at all possible.
Probable cause
The pilot's failure to maintain the airplane's minimum controllable airspeed during a single-engine go-around which resulted in his loss of control. Contributing factors to the accident included the loss of power from the left engine as a result of pre-ignition/detonation for undetermined reasons, the pilot exceeding the aircraft's maximum gross takeoff weight, and the pilot not adhering to published policies and procedures for a single-engine go-around.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW03FA051
- Event ID
- 20021202X05543
- Case number
- FTW03FA051
- 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: 7fdbce8bee8e03c432617af919824dc3e1853edd18333119b1727d94847cf619; retrieved 2026-09-20T19:36:47.043Z.