ATL05LA094 · Piper PA-32R-301T

At 2130, the pilot informed Indianapolis Center Air Traffic Controller that he was having an emergency. The airplane then lost engine power. The Controller provided information about nearby airports, but the pilot could not locate any of the airports. Another airplane in the vicinity tried to assist in visually locating a nearby airport, but was also unsuccessful. The pilot maneuvered for an emergency landing and the airplane collided with a tree, pickup truck and a mobile home. Examination of the aircraft revealed both wings detached, the propeller and engine cowling separated from the airplane, and the firewall buckled. The nose of the airplane was crushed and all three blades of the propeller were bent. Oil was across the belly of the fuselage and no oil was recovered from the engine. The fuel tanks were breached, but fuel was found in the fuel bowl and the fuel servo. Photographs of the accident scene showed the turbocharger oil drain tank separated from its mount and hanging from the oil scavenge line and oil breather line. The mounting flange remained attached to the turbocharger. The oil return line threads that attached to the oil drain tank were not damaged. The turbine housing at the turbocharger oil drain tank attachment area was discolored. The turbocharger center section oil supply line check valve was field tested by applying 30 inches of air pressure and was functional. The turbocharger teardown revealed no evidence of oil leakage from the turbocharger assembly. The turbocharger was manufactured in March 1988 and was overhauled and reinstalled on the airplane by a repair facility on June 3, 2005, 2 days before the accident. The pilot’s kneeboard was recovered. Kneeboard notes dated June 5, 2005, the day of the accident, contained a notation of “Symptoms,” followed by entries of “blue smoke” and “oil puddle.” Additional entries appeared to note engine power loss observations.

Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset