Package Express Piper PA-32-300 accident
Piper PA-32-300 · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) on approach
From Raleigh-Durham International Airport (RDU) to Charlotte Douglas International Airport (CLT)
Event
- NTSB case
- ATL03LA108
- 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
- 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-32-300
- 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
- N685BW
- Operator
- Package Express
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Raleigh-Durham International Airport (RDU), Raleigh Durham, NCTo Charlotte Douglas International Airport (CLT), Charlotte, NC
- 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
- Approach
- 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 starvation; Wire, transmission; 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
- Pilot in command › Fuel management, improper
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot was receiving vectors from air traffic control for an ILS approach to runway 36R at Charlotte Douglas International Airport, Charlotte, North Carolina. After leveling off from a turn during his last vector, he heard a loud noise and the engine lost power. Attempts to restart the engine were unsuccessful, and the pilot aligned the airplane with a road for an emergency landing. During the descent, the airplane struck trees and power lines, then collided with the pavement and caught fire. The pilot escaped through the cargo door, and the cabin area was fire damaged. The right wing had evidence of a wire strike at the position of the right main fuel tank but the main tank was not burned. According to the pilot, the airplane had been airborne for a total 2 hours, 29 minutes on the two legs since refueling at which time the tanks were topped off. A review of fuel usage records for the airplane, the engine consumes approximately 15 gallons of fuel per hour. The Cherokee Six is equipped with two main fuel tanks with a capacity of 25 gallons each, and two auxiliary fuel tanks with a capacity of 17 gallons each.
Probable cause
The pilot's mismanagement of the fuel supply, which resulted in fuel starvation and the subsequent loss of engine power.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ATL03LA108
- Event ID
- 20030623X00927
- Case number
- ATL03LA108
- 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, coordinates. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 2003-06-18.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 2c41a179c6aba498277aaf9a98b788f7f1fb026189303c30b5cb2931aa292721; retrieved 2026-09-18T15:45:49.360Z.