CHI03LA044 · Piper PA-28-180
Piper PA-28-180 · Accident: loss of engine power en route
From Sackman Field (H49) to Grand Glaize Osage Beach Airport (K15)
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI03LA044
- 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-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
- N3236Y
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Sackman Field (H49), Columbia, ILTo Grand Glaize Osage Beach Airport (K15), Osage Beach, 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 · 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
- 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
- Fuel starvation; 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
- Electrical system › Failure
- Fluid, fuel › Starvation
- Fuel system, pump › Failure
- Fuel system, pump › Not operating
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The airplane was substantially damaged during a forced landing in a wooded area following a loss of engine power during descent for landing. The pilot reported having an electrical system failure during the flight. He reported that he switched the master switch off to conserve battery power about 12 to 15 nautical miles (nm) from the destination airport. He stated that the engine lost power about 5 to 6 nm from the destination. The pilot reported switching fuel tanks and turning the master switch and electric fuel pump on. The pilot reported that engine power was restored for about 10 to 15 seconds at which time the battery was completely drained and the engine stopped. Postaccident examination revealed that the mechanical fuel pump would not pump fuel when the engine was cranked using the starter. In addition, the fuel pump would not pump fuel unless the fuel pump's plunger was moved beyond the normal travel range. No determination was made as to the nature of the electrical system failure.
Probable cause
Fuel Starvation due to the failure of the mechanical fuel pump and the inoperable electric fuel pump caused by the electrical system failure. Factors were the unsuitable terrain and the trees.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI03LA044
- Event ID
- 20021227X05639
- Case number
- CHI03LA044
- 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: aafb2bae7a75a6b61f5d5f6a715be7c75f15c5b881eff735a62a3d669cb1450c; retrieved 2026-09-21T19:33:59.018Z.