Package Express Piper PA-32-300 accident
Piper PA-32-300 · Accident: loss of engine power on approach
From Wilmington International Airport (ILM) to Concord-Padgett Regional Airport (JQF)
Event
- NTSB case
- ATL05LA049
- 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
- Visual 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
- N364BW
- Operator
- Package Express
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Wilmington International Airport (ILM), Wilmington, NCTo Concord-Padgett Regional Airport (JQF), Concord, 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 · VFR pattern final
- 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
- 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
- Fluid, fuel › Starvation
- Fuel system, pump › Failure
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
According to the pilot, during a cargo flight to Concord Regional Airport, North Carolina at an attitude of approximately 2000 feet, and 5 miles out from runway 20 the engine began to lose power. The pilot switched from the left main tank to the right main tank to regain engine power. Engine power was regained for a brief moment and then started to decrease again to 1000 rpm. The pilot switched from the right main tank to the auxiliary tip tanks, and noted no increase in engine power. The pilot contacted the Concord Regional Airport tower and informed them that the airplane was "going down." The airplane collided in a rock quarry approximately one mile from the approach end of runway 20. Post accident examination of the airplane revealed the engine was displaced aft. Post-accident examination of Fuel Pump model (RG17980D/M) serial # B-4766-3402 revealed that the fuel pump was repaired in the field during the life of the unit. The unit was shipped new prior to 1989. No record of overhaul or upgrade activity by the manufacturer was noted. No evidence of preventive maintenance was noted. Examination of the unit revealed severe wear to the rotor interface with the drive coupling, rubber seal material worn on rubber journal, severe wear to rotor seal. The inside diameter of the rotor seal was severely oversized, and compromised the sealing capability at the pumps drive end. This location revealed extensive leakage during testing.
Probable cause
The loss of engine power due to the failure of the fuel pump which resulted in fuel starvation.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ATL05LA049
- Event ID
- 20050215X00188
- Case number
- ATL05LA049
- Dataset
- historical-pre2008
- Source SHA-256
- 89e2df6d848e7ab3b42e7d7c7a03ff403303057a26ca04c95b3ea67201c3ce74
Source notes (5)
- 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: 5f554e2fc9fdfb0dea120d0d9e69466fccb006d28d46f7e40775b561b1bbf8a6; retrieved 2026-09-18T15:06:44.922Z.
- The NTSB's operator name is blank for N364BW; the operator shown is the name the NTSB records it doing business as.