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Cape Smythe Air Service Flight 310

9 May 2005 · Elim, AK, United States

Piper PA-31-350 · Accident: airframe, component or system failure en route

From Nome Airport (PAOM) to Elim Airport (ELI)

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Event

NTSB case
ANC05LA075
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-31-350

Aircraft type
Piper PA-31
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
N3535F
Onboard fatalities
Unknown
Route
From Nome Airport (PAOM), Nome, AKTo Elim Airport (ELI), Elim, AK
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
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
Airframe, component or system failure
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

  • Company maintenance personnel › Maintenance, installation, improper
  • Fuel system, line fitting › Leak

Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.

NTSB narrative

During the landing roll of the 14 CFR Part 135 scheduled commuter flight, the airline transport certificated pilot noticed a fire in the right engine compartment. He pulled the firewall fuel shutoff for the right engine and stopped the airplane. The passengers were evacuated and the pilot discharged the airplane's fire extinguisher inside the right engine compartment. Additional dry chemical fire extinguishers were supplied by personnel at the airport, and the fire was extinguished. A passenger on the airplane reported that she smelled gasoline and smoke as the airplane was turning onto final, and saw flames as the plane landed. The airplane received structural damage to the right wing. An FAA inspector examined the airplane and reported that the fire pattern was consistent with an in-flight fire on the inboard side of the right engine, that appeared to be concentrated around the hydraulic pump, fuel pump, and the turbocharger. The inspector examined the fuel lines and hydraulic lines to the respective pumps. His examination revealed loose "B" nuts that had no heat discoloration. The airplane's hydraulic fluid reservoir contained fluid. The airplane's right engine hydraulic pump was replaced about 31 hours before the fire. The inspector interviewed the operator's maintenance personnel, and learned that during the hydraulic pump replacement, mechanics removed the right engine's fuel pump to access to the hydraulic pump. Due to the confined area during the reinstallation of the feeder line to the fuel pump, one mechanic held the line in-place, and another turned the fitting with a wrench. A leak check revealed that the fitting was cross-threaded and leaked. The fitting was re-tightened and signed off. The inspector sent the fuel lines and hydraulic lines to the NTSB IIC for examination. Each line was subjected to an air pressure leak test, and no leaks were discovered.

Probable cause

An improper installation of a fuel line fitting by company maintenance personnel, which resulted in a fuel leak and subsequent in-flight engine compartment fire during cruise flight that was discovered during the landing roll.

Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset

Sources

NTSB record ANC05LA075
Event ID
20050513X00609
Case number
ANC05LA075
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: 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 2005-05-10.
  • API snapshot SHA-256: 9f514fe790aff4bd05a41f82661368e3aef0c3603f5777789afa7d2864f6e294; retrieved 2026-09-18T15:02:53.592Z.
  • The NTSB's operator name is blank for N3535F; the operator shown is the name the NTSB's other records give its FAA operator code, CSAA.