CHI04CA210 · Piper PA-28RT-201T
Piper PA-28RT-201T · Accident: loss of engine power during initial climb
From Canton-Plymouth-Mettetal Airport (1D2) to Canton-Plymouth-Mettetal Airport (1D2)
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI04CA210
- 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-28RT-201T
- 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
- N77782
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Canton-Plymouth-Mettetal Airport (1D2), Plymouth, MITo Canton-Plymouth-Mettetal Airport (1D2), Plymouth, MI
- 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
- 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
- Altitude › Low
- Fuel system › Flow restricted
- Fuel system › Vapor lock
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 destroyed during a post-impact ground fire, following a loss of engine power and subsequent forced landing. The pilot reported he had landed and shut down the engine for a few minutes prior to loading his two passengers for a local flight. The pilot stated the airplane contained 35 gallons of fuel prior to the accident flight. The pilot reported the engine "shuddered" during takeoff roll and he aborted the takeoff. The pilot stated he then performed an engine run-up check and the engine "felt fine." The airplane experienced a loss of engine power while on the second takeoff attempt. The pilot stated he maneuvered the airplane to land on a nearby road and it impacted a road sign prior to coming to stop. An on-ground fire engulfed the airplane shortly thereafter. There were no anomalies noted with the engine during a post-accident operational test. The outside temperature at the time of the accident was approximately 28 degrees Celsius. A condition known as vapor lock can occur when engine heats the fuel lines and the contained fuel becomes a vapor. This tendency is increased if the fuel in the tank is warm, commonly as a result of high atmospheric temperatures. The fuel vapor can result in partial or complete interruption of fuel flow to the engine.
Probable cause
The loss of engine power at a low altitude due to a fuel flow restriction caused by vapor lock. Factors to the accident included the high atmospheric temperature and the road sign that the airplane impacted during the forced landing.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI04CA210
- Event ID
- 20040830X01320
- Case number
- CHI04CA210
- 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: 6525ada9761526b3fa24384da51b6554d08612a7e092c2dec9daf9505dff54f2; retrieved 2026-09-21T19:10:54.055Z.